Sebastián Vidal y Soler

Sebastián Vidal y Soler (1842-1889) was a Spanish forester and botanist.

Sebastián Vidal and his lesser known brother, Domingo, studied at the Spanish forestry school. In the 1870s they both took up posts in the forestry service of the Philippines, which was a Spanish colonial possession.
Sebastián Vidal had a particular interest in woody plants, but studied Malesian flora in general, collecting specimens, collaborating with other botanists, and publishing a number of works including Revision de Plantas Vasculares Filipinas (Manila 1886).
In 1883 he was back in Europe and visited herbaria there including that of Kew.
Vidal served as director of the Botanical Garden of Manila from 1878 until his death in 1889 from cholera. A statue of Vidal by Enric Clarasó was erected in the Garden, although it no longer survives.

Although the herbarium in Manila was destroyed in a fire in 1897, some of Vidal's specimens of Philippine flora are preserved in Europe to this day, at Kew and notably at Madrid's Real Jardín Botánico, where, since Vidal's death Benjamín Máximo Laguna and later scholars have worked on them.