This card features one of the many exquisite illustrative plates to be found in "The Temple of Flora", the third and final part of Robert John Thornton's New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus, a work considered by many to be the finest of all books about flowers. In addition to the stunning depictions of flora, notable for their novel and dramatic backdrops, for each featured flower Thornton compiled a variety of descriptions (often highly sexualised) and poetic odes (including from Erasmus Darwin's The Botanic Garden).