Charles de l'Écluse was an important 16th-century horticulturalist who, like many scientists of his time, adopted a Latinized form of his name and was also known as Carolus Clusius.
Clusius is remembered as the botanist who introduced tulips to Holland.

Around 1560, Clusius wrote that the first tulips appeared in Antwerp & Mechelen. A merchant had gotten a hold of some, and, assuming they were a new kind of onion, he ate a few of the bulbs and then planted the rest. To his surprise, the onions grew into the beautiful blooms we know today as tulips. In 1593, after a trip to Turkey, Clusius finally obtained some tulips for himself from the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman.
Clusius planted them at his botanical garden at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Hoping to study their medicinal properties, he was stunned when neighbors crept into his garden, stole the bulbs, sold them for ridiculous sums, and launched the Dutch tulip trade. Within a few decades, Leiden's tulips gave rise to Tulipmania, which still fascinates garden historians to this day.

Below are drawings made for a 'Tulip book' and painted just after 'Tulipomania' rampaged through Holland. These florilegia were commissioned to allow buyers of bulbs to discern differences between varieties. The beauty of these works ensured that their images would be copied for decades to come by amateur painters and gardeners alike.