Hugh Algernon Weddell

Hugh Algernon Weddell (22 June 1819 – 22 July 1877) was a physician and botanist, specialising in South American flora.

Weddell was born at Birches House, Painswick near Gloucester, England, but was raised in France and educated at the Lycée Henri IV, where he received a medical degree in 1841.

Before leaving Paris, he had been particularly instructed by the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle to undertake a thorough investigation of the Cinchona plant, or "fever bark" tree in its native habitat.

Cinchona, the source of quinine, was of great commercial importance and Europeans had been investigating it for nearly two hundred years with the goal of cultivating it in regions far removed from the Andes mountains.

Weddell explored a number of regions where the trees grew and identified no fewer than fifteen distinct species of the genus Cinchona (Rubiaceae).