| 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". |