 It was published by Christophe Plantin, whose workshop handled most of the major botanical works of the period and accumulated a large stock of woodcuts which were recycled between all these publications.The work is notable as one of the earliest attempts to classify plants by their natural characteristics rather than medicinal properties.The initial section is the new "Stirpium observations" (671 pages), which is liberally illustrated, followed by the revised "Nova stirpium adversarial".