 When they returned to London in 1771, Banks employed five artists to create watercolours of all of Parkinson's drawings, and 18 engravers to create 743 copperplate line engravings from the completed watercolours at a considerable cost.The engraving work stalled in 1784, and the "Florilegium" was not printed in Banks' lifetime.On his death in 1820 he bequeathed the plates to the British Museum.