Syrian thistle, Notobasis syriaca cass. / G .S. Whiting.

A profession of botanical illustrator began to emerge in the eighteenth century with advances in the printing processes. Botanical Illustrations became accurate in color and detail. Amateur botanists, gardeners, and natural historians provided a market for botanical publications. The photographic process has not made botanical illustrations obsolete since illustrators were able to combine accuracy, an idealized image from several specimens, and the inclusion of the face and reverse of the features such as leaves with details given at a magnified scale.