Temple of Flora, sometimes criticized for its scientific inaccuracy, is perhaps the single most famous of all florilegium. Dr. Robert Thornton was not primarily an artist. However, he was the driving force and visionary behind the creation of this great work.

 To produce it, he employed other artists and engravers. Thornton lived from 1768 to 1837. He intended to issue seventy plates dramatically and poetically illustrating Linnaeus' discoveries about the sexual system of plants.

 It required the completion of only twenty-eight plates to bring financial ruin upon the well-stationed physician. The project fell victim to Thornton's almost fanatical attention to detail and the changing taste of a social elite who had become somewhat jaded by the preponderance of great flower books created during this period.

In 1804, he opened a gallery in London. There he exhibited the original paintings and sold catalogs. The primary objective was to publicize the folio of engravings as it was being published and released.