John Ellis was an eighteenth-century naturalist known for being the first person to publish a description of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) after specimens were sent from North Carolina to Britain in 1769. Ellis was also one of the first marine biologists, specialising in zoophytes, particularly corals, which he illustrated with great attention to detail. Among his discoveries, made with the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander (1733-82), was that sponges were animals. This book on zoophytes, with additions by Solander, was published posthumously in 1786 at the instigation of Ellis's daughter after the manuscript was found among Solander's effects by the Swedish embassy in London four years earlier.