Pierre Vallet was the first botanical painter in the French Court of the seventeenth century. He also held the titles of royal gardener and royal embroiderer, and his book, Le Jardin du Roy Très Chrestien, Loys XIII, Roy de France et de Navare, published in Paris in 1623, was actually a pattern book for painters, embroiderers, and tapestry weavers. It had been preceded by what was perhaps the first florilegium published in Europe-the 1608 volume, Le Jardin du Roy très Chrestien Henry IV. The two volumes differed only in the number of plates, twenty additional having been added to the 1623 edition. All of the drawings were based on plants growing in the King’s Garden and in the personal garden of the royal botanist, Jean Robin (1550-1629). The plates are uncolored, but the text describes the colors of the flowers.