Species Ehretia tetrandra

For George Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), German botanical artist. He worked for two years as a gardener at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris before going to England. His unique style and clarity of plant illustration was sought out by specialists such as Sir Joseph Banks. During 1735–1736 he worked with Linnaeus and for George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker in the Netherlands, producing the Hortus Cliffortianus in 1738, a masterpiece of early botanical literature. Over 3 000 of his illustrations survive in collections such as Trew’s published work, Plantae Selectae (1750) and in the Natural History Museum, England. His patroness was Margaret Cavendish Harley Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1758.