The Camelia, a Jesuit Flower

Georg Josef Kamel was born in 1661 in Brno, Moravia (which is now the Czech Republic). When he joined the Jesuits as a brother, he began spelling his name in its Latin form, “Camellus.” He was sent first to the Marianas in 1683 and then to the Philippines in 1688 where he began to study botany and served as an infirmarian and pharmacist. He established an infirmary in Manila (the first in the Philippines) to help the poor. He became the first plant specialist in the Philippines and discovered the medicinal properties of a plant he named the St. Ignatius bean (Strychnos ignatii), which is now known as strychnine. His reports on plants and the natural history of the islands were published in London in the “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.” Charles von Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist responsible for creating the system of taxonomy, was so impressed with Kamel’s work that he renamed Thea sinensis “Camellia sinensis.” Even though Kamel did not discover the plant named in his honor, the name honors his pioneering work. He is considered one of the most important pharmacists of the seventeenth century.
(From sjweb.info)