The appearance of the first tropical Orchids in the British Isles enraptured lovers of flora, who built hothouses to coax their fabulously expensive cattleya and cypripedia to bloom. The Orchid Album, published in eleven volumes from 1882 to 1897, features illustrations—hand-tinted lithographs on royal quarto pages—by botanical artist and printmaker John Nugent Fitch, who, like the authors, was a fellow of the prestigious Linnean Society. For this calendar, twelve exceptional species were selected from a copy of The Orchid Album.