From 1828 to 1851, the ladies of the Clifford family of Frampton Court in Gloucestershire - four sisters and their three aunts - painted every plant and flower they found.

The paintings were only rediscovered in 1982, having been stitched up in scrapbooks and confined to the attic.

Now these gorgeous drawings have been published for all to see, in The Frampton Flora (Quercus, £20). Richard Mabey provides an illuminating commentary, with snippets about the plants themselves, and giving us a taste of Victorian England. But the real beauty of the book lies in the drawings.

For such a glorious publication, with colour plates on just about all of its 200 pages, £20 seems a real bargain.