John Ellis (naturalist)
{{Short description|British linen merchant and naturalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = John Ellis
| honorific_suffix = FRS
| birth_date = {{circa|1710}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1776|10|15|1710|df=yes}}
| occupation = Naturalist, linen merchant
| awards = {{Awards|Copley Medal|1767}}
}}
File:John Ellis (naturalist)00.jpg
John Ellis {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} ({{Circa|1710}} – 15 October 1776) aka Jean Ellis was a British linen merchant and naturalist. Ellis was the first to have a published written description of the Venus flytrap and its botanical name. {{Botanist|J.Ellis|border=0|inline=1}}
Ellis specialised in the study of corals. He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1754 and in the following year published An essay towards the Natural History of the Corallines. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1767. In 1770 he presented papers to the Royal Society on the loblolly bay and the American star anise.Rauschenberg, Roy A. “John Ellis, Royal Agent for West Florida.” The Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 1, 1983, p. 17. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146233 JSTOR website] Retrieved 27 Dec. 2024. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1774.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=John+Ellis&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-03-30|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} His A Natural History of Many Uncommon and Curious Zoophytes, written with Daniel Solander, was published posthumously in 1776.
Ellis was appointed Royal Agent for British West Florida in 1764, and for British Dominica in 1770.
He exported many seeds and native plants from North America to England. He corresponded with many botanists, including Carl Linnaeus.
Taxonomist
=Venus's Fly-trap=
A royal botanist, William Young imported living plants of the Venus flytrap to England. They were then shown to Ellis. In 1769, he wrote a description of the plant discovery from North Carolina to send to the 'Father of Taxonomy', Carl Linnaeus.
Ellis also gave it the scientific name of Dionaea muscipula. Later, his essay Directions for bringing over seeds and plants, from the East Indies (1770) included the first illustration of a Venus Flytrap plant.[http://www.huntbotanical.org/admin/uploads/hibd-ellis-seeds.pdf Directions for Bringing over Seeds and Plants, from the East Indies and Other Distant Countries, in a State of Vegetation:] - Together with a Catalogue of Such Foreign Plants as Are Worthy of Being Encouraged in Our American Colonies, for the Purposes of Medicine, Agriculture, and Commerce. To Which is Added, the Figure and Botanical Description of a New Sensitive Plant, Called Dionaea muscipula: or, Venus's Fly-trap (London, printed and sold by L. Davis, 1770).
Honours
He was honoured by having 2 plant genera named after him, Ellisia (in 1763{{cite web |title=Ellisia L. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:330605-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=6 September 2021 |language=en}} ) and Ellisiophyllum (in 1871{{cite web |title=Ellisiophyllum Maxim. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:19754-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=15 May 2021 |language=en}}).{{cite book | last=Quattrocchi | first=Umberto | title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L | publisher=CRC Press | location=Boca Raton, Florida | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8493-2676-9}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- Ellis, John (1773) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/22958 Directions for bringing over seeds and plants, from the East-Indies and other distant countries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202074901/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/22958 |date=2 February 2017 }} - digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library
- {{cite web | title=An essay towards a natural history of the corallines, and other marine productions of the like kind, commonly found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. To which is added the description of a large marine polype taken near the North Pole, by the whale-fishers, in the summer 1753 .. | website= Ellis, John, 1710?-1776 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive | date=10 June 2020 | url=https://archive.org/details/essaytowardsnatu00elli | ref={{sfnref | Internet Archive | 2020}} | access-date=31 March 2021}}
{{Copley Medallists 1751-1800}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, John}}
Category:British botanical illustrators
Category:Botanists active in North America
Category:Botanists active in the Caribbean
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal
Category:British Dominica people
Category:People from West Florida
Category:18th-century British botanists
Category:18th-century English businesspeople
Category:18th-century British zoologists