B. L. Burtt

Brian Laurence "Bill" Burtt FRSE FLS (27 August 1913 – 30 May 2008), was an English botanist and taxonomist who is noted for his contributions to the family Gesneriaceae.

By the 1980s RBGE led the world in their extensive living collection of Zingiberaceae from Malaysia and Borneo, only being rivalled in recent years by that of the Smithsonian Institution.

Their botanical collaboration was extraordinarily prolific, resulting in numerous papers and three books, Streptocarpus: an African Plant Study (1971), The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg (1987), and Dierama: The Hairbells of Africa (1991).

The diascias with which they returned to Scotland were noticed by the nurseryman Hector Harrison, who raised cultivars from this original stock and turned the plant in the space of ten years into one of the most popular subjects for gardeners throughout Britain.

Through Burtt's work, Edinburgh became an important research centre for Gesneriaceae, and led to the popularity in Britain of African violet and Streptocarpus as window-sill plants.