| 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 | Small, octavo notebook of miscellaneous notes and drawings by John Ellis including extracts from publications, notes on an experiment dated December 1751 involving mixing Powder of Galls with water, as well as observations on the characteristics of various substances such as rain water, mineral water, vinegar, oil of vitriol, putrified vegetables etc. |