"To say some of the plants in my book are rare is an understatment, a lot of them are to all intents and purposes extinct, they no longer exist outside of private collections." Dr Jonathan Singer’s original edition of Botanica Magnifica containing 250 metre-tall plates was inspired by Audubon’s double-elephant folio of The Birds of America and was intended to be a limited edition of ten copies. But when a Japanese buyer offered him $2.5 million for a copy of the five volume set, it made Singer rethink. "There is only one copy. I decided to make the edition priceless, so the one held at the Smithsonian would remain unique." An edited edition of Dr Singer’s opus is out now from Abbeville, and is accompanied by a nationwide tour this month.