Robert John Thornton, The Temple of Flora

Once described as a ‘visually magnificent failure’, this elaborate book on botany nearly bankrupted its author, Robert John Thornton. The book was originally entitled The New Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus, but became better known as The Temple of Flora. Thornton employed teams of master engravers and colourists to reproduce 28 paintings of plants from across the world. The dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris), sometimes called stink lily, reproduces the smell of putrefying meat to attract flies for pollination.