William Bull (1828-1902) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

botanist, nurseryman and plant collector. He was born in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

and in 1861 purchased the nursery of John Weeks and Company in

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. He introduced into cultivation, plants from other countries, including

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s from

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. The vast stock of the firm William Bull And Sons, headquartered at Kings Road, Chelsea, made it famous worldwide. When Ceylon was struck by a coffee-plant disease, ''Hemileia vastatrix'', it was able to supply planters with a variety called ''Coffea liberica'', which was immune to the disease. With the retirement of Edward Bull in 1916, by then the sole proprietor, the firm closed.End Of Famous Horticultural Firm, The Mail (The Evening Male), 29 March 1916, p8.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bull, William English botanists 1828 births 1902 deaths