Genus Burchellia
Pictures from Observations
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For William John Burchell (1782–1863), English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist and author. The son of a botanist and nursery owner, he served his apprenticeship at Kew Gardens. In 1805 he travelled to St Helena where in 1807 he became a schoolmaster and acting botanist. In 1810 he travelled to Cape Town. Between 1810 and 1815, he travelled some 7 000km, some in uncharted territory, and collected 50 000 specimens which he took back to England. He described this journey in the two-volume Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (1822). Apart from flowers, his name is also associated with Burchell’s zebra and Burchell’s coucal. Between 1825 and 1830, he travelled to Brazil collecting many specimens, including over 20 000 insects. His diaries of this trip are lost but his field notes survived.