William Wilson (botanist)

The second son of Thomas Wilson, a druggist, he was born at Warrington (which was then in Lancashire, and later transferred to Cheshire) on 7 June 1799.

He was educated at Prestbury Grammar School and under Dr John Reynolds at the dissenting academy in Leaf Square, Manchester.

[3] Wilson entered into correspondence with specialists: Sextus Otto Lindberg and Wilhelm Philippe Schimper.

Over a hundred new species of British mosses were then added to the list between its publication and his death.

[1] Besides the Cotoneaster, Wilson added a new species of rose, a fern, and many mosses to the British list, the rose Rosa Wilsoni[4] being named after him by William Borrer, and the Wilson's filmy fern named Hymenophyllum wilsonii by Hooker.

[1] With William Jackson Hooker Wilson edited the exsiccata series Musci Americani; or, specimens of mosses, Jungermanniae, &c. collected by the late Thomas Drummond, in the Southern States of North America.