Robert John Thornton’s New Illustration of the Sexual System of Linneaus features the same close observation of natural specimens as Mark Catesby’s popular volumes, which were published seventy years earlier. However, Thornton’s more theatrical illustrations were suggestively paired with Romantic poetry, some of which centered around overtly sexual themes. Alongside the illustration seen in this drawer he included the
following verse:

In polish’d censers, wrought with
wondrous care,
Five cherub boys the holy
incense bear;
Three pious virgins form her
holy train,
Join in her pray’rs, and weep the
“Lamb that’s slain.”

The “five cherub boys” symbolize
the plant’s five stamens, and the
“three pious virgins” symbolize
its three styles.

Robert John Thornton
(English, ca. 1768–1837)
“The Quadrangular Passion Flower”
From Temple of Flora, 1802
Aquatint
Chipstone Foundation 1952.29