Today's botanical artists continue a long tradition of excellence going back over many centuries. The best of their work is of great accuracy and beauty and comparable with that of the more celebrated artists of the past. This book presents a selection of botanical paintings by 19 contemporary artists who have worked at Kew. The plants depicted range from familiar wild flowers to exotic orchids and the paintings include single specimens, groups of plants and detailed analytical studies. Mary Grierson, one of the world's leading botanical painters, advised on the selection of the illustrations. Each plate is accompanied by a description of the plant and the task it presented to the artist, by the eminent botanical scholar Dr William T.Stearn, who has also contributed an introduction to the work of present-day artists and its relation to those of earlier periods. There is also a short biography of each of the artists represented.