William John Burchell

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William John Burchell

William John Burchell (* 1782 in London ( Fulham ), † March 3, 1863 ) was a British naturalist and botanist . He was one of the most important African explorers. Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Burch. "

Live and act

Burchell was born the eldest son of the wealthy plant breeder William Burchell. He was a very skilled naturalist, amassing extensive natural history collections and describing many new species . However, his accomplishments were not fully recognized by his contemporaries, and he became lonely and unhappy with age.

He developed a keen interest in natural history at an early age and studied botany at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London ( Richmond ). Then he became a teacher and botanist on the island of St. Helena at an early age . His fiancée Lucia Green sailed to England to marry him in 1807. Upon arrival, however, she announced that she had chosen the ship's captain and married him. Burchell then gave up love and did his bachelor's degree .

In 1810 he crossed to Cape Town . He had an ox wagon made for himself and drove inland with six servants of the Khoi Khoi people in June 1811 . This expedition is documented in a two-volume work, Travels in the interior of southern Africa (1822–1824). He returned to England in 1815 with over 50,000 species, many of which were bequeathed to the Natural History Department of the British Museum in London (this department is now London's Natural History Museum ). John Hutchinson (1884–1972) wrote in A botanist in Southern Africa : Probably no such collection gathered by a man ever left Africa before or since. ( Probably no one has collected that much in Africa before or after him. )

Because some of his exhibits had been damaged during storage in the British Museum, he fell out with those responsible and the management of the museum, both sides were very angry. After the dispute, the then curator for zoological collections, Dr. John Edward Gray named the plains zebra Asinus burchellii after him, knowing full well that asinus stands for donkey or fool in Latin . Later the genera Asinus and Equus Linnaeus were merged in 1758, now this zebra was called Equus burchellii ( JE Gray , 1824), which is now a synonym of the older name Equus quagga Boddaert , 1785, or only the subspecies Burchell's zebra ( Equus quagga burchelli ).

He spent the following ten years, 1815–1825, organizing and documenting the species that were collected. Then he went on his last expedition, this time to Brazil , where he collected over 20,000 insects , 362 species of birds and many other animals and plants. He returned to England in 1830, where he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in recognition of his achievements . Because his travels were very demanding on him, he withdrew from the public eye and became a loner. He suffered from an illness in his final years and ultimately committed suicide in 1863.

Approx. two years after his death, his sister Anna Burchell donated much of his entomological , ethnological , geological and zoological collections to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History , including many birds and mammals .

Eponymy

Burchellia bubalina

In honor of Burchell, a genus Burchellia R.Br. from the plant family of the redness plants named (Rubiaceae) after him.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Cleverly, Les: WJ Burchell. 1989.
  • Notcutt, Henry Clement: Pioneers. Maskew & Miller, Cape Town 1924.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Burchell, William John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naturalist and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH London (Fulham)
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1863