These backgrounds are made from The Botanical Prints made from 1787 onwards by artist such as
William Curtis, Sydenham Edwards, James Sowerby, William Hooker and H.J. Fitch.
The beauty and diversity of orchids has fascinated people for many hundreds of years. 5 centuries
before Christ, Confucius compared the pleasure of seeing good friends to entering a room full
of "lan" or fragrant orchids.
The Chinese called these flowers "lan", the name they came to be known by in the western
world was given (according to legend) by Theophrastus, a student of Plato. He noted the
round paired bulbs of one common European orchid and gave it the name orchis from the Greek
word for testicle.
Later, this name was applied not only to one genus, Orchis, but also to the entire family
(even though the majority of orchids do not have this kind of root). Commonly this family is
called the orchid family: scientifically, the family is called Orchidaceae.