AdminHistory | John Ellis FRS (1714-1776) was a British linen merchant and naturalist. He was the first to publish a written description of the Venus flytrap in a pamphlet entitled "Directions for Bringing over Seeds and Plants from the East Indies and Other Distant Countries" (1770). He imported numerous American seeds and was particularly interested in the problems connected with transportation of plants and seeds. The "Natural History of Many Uncommon and Curious Zoophytes", written with Daniel Solander, was posthumously published in 1786. Ellis was a correspondent of Carl Linnaeus who described him as "a bright star of natural history". |
Description | Notebook entitled "List of such plants as have been planted in Conservatories, and of such as have occasionally been introduc'd during their flowering Season for Ornament". The notebook consists of 28 pages of which 11 are written on. With successive headings this unpublished MS is referred to in Notebook 2, f.110r, in a draft letter to Governor Tryon of New York, dated 4 Feb 1772. The names are in Latin (Linnaean species, except one Tournefortian, and two marked H. L.), with the English names written opposite the Latin ones. Ellis has added some names, in the handwriting characteristic of the last year of his life: showing how he retained his interest in horticulture to the last. This volume was formerly referred to as Notebook no 5 (MS/292). |