This is the first scholarly treatise to tell the remarkable story behind the making of the Flora Graeca, a monumental collection of drawings and descriptions of plants in mainland Greece and the Balkan Peninsula. Originally described by Diskorides in the sixth century, the flora and fauna of the Balkan Peninsula were neglected until the gentlemen botanists-naturalists John Sibthorpe and John Hawkins, with the help of illustrator Ferdinand Bauer, travelled the region and produced a class of paintings superior to anything of their kind in existence then. These were to become one of the most valuable treasures of the University of Oxford. Based on the original diaries, letters, and specimen, this fine work is illustrated with prints from the original illustrations which are still housed at the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford. "Hosannas have already been sung to Lack's The Flora Graeca story by B. Mathew in Curtis's Bot Mag. 16:247-248, E. C. Nelson in Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 131:201-2-2, and T. Raus in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 121:608-609. Lack's Story is a much-needed and magnificent history of John Sibthorp (1758-96) and his ten-volume Flora Graeca (1806-40) and especially of his extensive exploratory journeys (1784-87, 1794-95) with John Hawkins (1761-1841) and Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826). I can add little to the justified praises in these reviews ..."-- Taxon H.W. Lack is at Botanischer Garten und Botanischer Museum, Berlin. David Mabberley is at Oxford University.