Lindley went to work at Banks’ house in London. He concentrated on the genera "Rosa" and "Digitalis" and published the monograph “A Botanical History of Roses” which distinguished seventy-six species, describes thirteen new ones and was illustrated by nineteen coloured plates painted by himself. He became acquainted with Joseph Sabine who grew a large assortment of roses and was the Secretary of the Horticultural Society of London. His employment came to an abrupt end with the death of Banks a few months later. One of Banks’ friends, a wealthy merchant called William Cattley, paid Lindley to draw and describe new plants in his garden at Barnet. He also paid for the publication of “"Digitalia Monographia"”. (Later Lindley honoured him by naming the orchid genus "Cattleya" after him.) In 1820, at the age of twenty-one, Lindley was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London.