Illustration to Payne's 'Flora', c.1620 One popular genre from the early 17th century onwards was of books of prints of flowers and other natural history specimens. Initially, this was derived from Dutch exemplars, and many of the earliest examples were directly copied from originals published by Crispijn de Passe and others, including most of the works of this kind by John Payne, who worked between 1620 and 1640. Such books seem to have been popular partly for the information about natural phenomena that they conveyed, but partly as pattern books for embroidery by gentlewomen and others. Such books were among the staples of Peter Stent, and they took on a new lease of life when the slightly stilted images purveyed by the likes of Payne were replaced by more naturalistic ones in the works produced by Francis Barlow and his successors. In this form, the genre survived well into the 18th century.