Apricot 'Breda' (Prunus armenaica), shown here in a watercolor painted in 1819 by William Hooker, is still grown today. Lindley Library

A few years ago, when the Lindley librarian published "Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society: 350 Years of Botanical Illustration" (by Brent Elliott, Timber Press, 1994), Allen was so impressed he went to London to have a look at the collection himself.

The fruits of that trip will be an exhibition of 70 botanical masterpieces in the Galleria of the Washington State Convention Center, Jan. 12-Feb. 22, in conjunction with the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The exhibit will be free and open to the public. Allen and Duane Kelly, garden-show director, worked with the Lindley Library for more than two years to secure artworks that have never traveled outside the United Kingdom.

"I decided to underwrite bringing the collection to Seattle, so that the Royal Horticultural Society couldn't say no," says Allen, who will host a preview party on Wednesday this week which will be attended by Andrew Colquhoun, director general of the Royal Horticultural Society. (Call 206-447-1881 for party information). Along with the display of botanical art, eight exhibit cases will be filled with other society treasures, including metal engraving plates and the personal diaries of plant explorer David Douglas.

The century of European world exploration, roughly 1750-1850, included discovery of hundreds of new plants. Explorers took artists along on their trips or brought plants back to be drawn in incredible and beautiful detail.

These works were the scientific record of the time, commissioned by the horticultural society as it organized and identified newly discovered plants. Colors in the prints glow despite having been put onto the pages of books hundreds of years ago, and it is possible to enjoy these treasures simply as some of the most beautiful art ever created.

It is a special bonus to come across plants grown today and see them as if for the first time, portrayed in the hands of gifted artists centuries ago. The exhibit contains early 18th-century paintings of sweet peas, hyacinths, snowdrops and sunflowers. And plants I've discovered just in the past few years are here in all their glory, such as passion flowers and the giant Himalayan lily Cardiocrinum giganteum.

There is a motive behind Allen's generosity: He hopes to help the Lindley Library raise money to digitize its art collection, thus helping make the collection available to scholars and artists over the Internet. The originals could be carefully stored away while the art itself would be widely available.

To this end, Allen has produced a CD-ROM showing how the collection will look in its computerized format. More information on digitization, and the CD, will be available at the exhibit.

Hand-done books like those of the Royal Horticultural Society are becoming more and more scarce, in part because they are no longer produced, but also because they are often bought at auction and the plates sliced out to sell individually. One at a time, plates can be sold privately for three or four times what a book would bring from a library or collector. These economic pressures, as well as the fact so many of the old books are brittle and falling apart, make a compelling case for digitization.