Mary Lawrance was well-known in Georgian England as a flower painter. Her work was shown at the Royal Academy and she also gave lessons in flower painting. In 1799 she published the first ever work illustrating the many varieties of rose.

The work was published as a periodical in 30 issues and these came to be bound in many formats. One of the original volumes was passed through the generations to Clari, Jonathan Marrow's wife. By this time it had become very fragile and was sold so that it could be restored. The current volume contains most of the images, reproduced from the original volume before it was sold.