Mark Catesby

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Mark Catesby

1683-1749

English naturalist, botanist, and ornithologist who explored Virginia, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Bermuda, and Jamaica during several trips to the Western Hemisphere. He published his resulting observations of the flora and fauna of these regions, complete with excellent detailed illustrations, in The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahaman Islands. The botanist Carolus Linnaeus used this book as a reference in his own work. Catesby was made a member of the Royal Society in 1732.