Orientalist paintings, as they are called, refer to 19th century images of the Orient, an area roughly corresponding to the present-day Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

FORBES: Orient Express

Among the first such adventurers were the two John Tradescants the Elder and his son the Younger, both 17th-century gardeners to royalty and the nobility, who made pioneering expeditions to the Orient and North America.

ECONOMIST: The curious history of herbaceous borders