William M. Wilson (1799–1871) was an English botanist, known for his focus on

bryology Bryology (from Greek , a moss, a liverwort) is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Bryologists are people who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or ...

Life

The second son of Thomas Wilson, a

druggist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

, he was born at

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

(which was then in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, and later transferred to

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

) on 7 June 1799. He was educated at Prestbury Grammar School and under Dr John Reynolds at the

dissenting academy The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...

in Leaf Square,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. He was then articled to a firm of solicitors in Manchester; but fell ill. This led to his love of botany, and when he was about 25, his mother gave him an allowance so that he could devote himself entirely to it.

In 1821 Wilson discovered '' Cotoneaster cambricus'' on Great Orme's Head. It brought him into correspondence with

Sir James Edward Smith __NOTOC__ Sir James Edward Smith (2 December 1759 – 17 March 1828) was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society. Early life and education Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a ...

, who encouraged him. In 1827

John Stevens Henslow John Stevens Henslow (6 February 1796 – 16 May 1861) was a British priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin. Early life Henslow was born at Rochester, Kent, the son of a solici ...

introduced him to

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

. Wilson spent nearly two years in Ireland, where he studied

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es, which from 1830 took his whole attention. From 1829 onward he was frequently quoted in Hooker's ''British Flora''. He became well known in his field.

Death

Wilson died at Paddington, two miles from Warrington, on 3 April 1871, and was buried in the nonconformist burial-ground, Hill Cliff, Warrington. He had married in 1836 a widowed cousin, Eliza Lane.

Works

Wilson was entrusted with the description of the mosses collected in the voyages of HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror'' under

James Clark Ross Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edwa ...

(expedition to Antarctica from 1839 to 1843), and of HMS ''Herald'' under

Henry Kellett Vice Admiral Sir Henry Kellett, (2 November 1806 – 1 March 1875) was a British naval officer and explorer. Career Born at Clonacody in Tipperary County, Ireland, on 2 November 1806, Kellett joined the Royal Navy in 1822. He spent three yea ...

. He made an early account of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

n mosses, describing many novelties. Wilson entered into correspondence with specialists:

Sextus Otto Lindberg Sextus Otto Lindberg (29 March 1835 – 20 February 1889) was a Swedish physician and botanist, known as a bryologist. Life He was born in Stockholm, and educated in Uppsala. He worked in the Grand Duchy of Finland, then part of the Russian Empir ...

and

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper Wilhelm Philippe Schimper (January 12, 1808 – March 20, 1880, in Lichtenberg) was an Alsatian botanist with French, later German citizenship. He was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel, but spent his youth in Offwiller, a village at the foot of t ...

. His major work was the ''Bryologia Britannica'' (1855) intended as a third edition of the ''Muscologia Britannica'' (1818) of Hooker and Thomas Taylor, but was substantially a new work. Over a hundred new species of British mosses were then added to the list between its publication and his death. Besides the ''

Cotoneaster ''Cotoneaster'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to the Palaearctic region (temperate Asia, Europe, north Africa), with a strong concentration of diversity in the genus in the mountains of southwestern China an ...

'', Wilson added a new species of rose, a fern, and many mosses to the British list, the rose ''Rosa Wilsoni'' being named after him by

William Borrer William Borrer ( Henfield, Sussex, 13 June 1781 – 10 January 1862) was an English botanist noted for his extensive and accurate knowledge of the plants of the British Islands. He travelled extensively around Britain to see and collect plan ...

, and the Wilson's filmy fern named ''

Hymenophyllum wilsonii ''Hymenophyllum wilsonii'', the Wilson's filmy-fern, is a small, fragile, perennial leptosporangiate fern which forms large dense colonies from creeping rhizomes. Distribution Confined to western Europe (Britain, Ireland, France, Norway, Spain ...

'' by Hooker. Wilson described many new species of exotic mosses in the ''Journal of Botany''. His papers were enumerated in the Royal Society's ''Catalogue'' (vi. 389, viii. 1249), and his herbarium and botanical correspondence went to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

Life

Death

Works

References

Further reading