Brown, ROBERT

Brown, ROBERT, an eminent botanist, the son of an Episcopal clergyman, was born at Montrose, Scotland, December 21, 1773, and educated there and at Marischal College, Aberdeen. While a student of medicine at the university of Edinburgh, he evinced a strong taste for botanical studies. He became, in 1795, ensign and assistant-surgeon in a Scottish Fencible regiment, with which he went to Ireland. In 1798 he visited London, and was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, who gave him the free use of his collections and library. Devoting himself to the study of botany, he resigned his commissions in 1800, and the following year was, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, engaged as naturalist in the expedition sent out under Captain Flinders for the survey of the Australian coasts. On his return in 1805 he brought home nearly four thousand species of Australian plants, a large proportion of which were new to science. Soon after, he was elected an associate and appointed librarian to the Linnean Society. To the Transactions of the Edinburgh Wernerian Society, and those of the Linnean Society, he contributed memoirs on Asclepiadeæ and Protaceæ, and published Prodromus Floræ Novæ Hollandiæ et Insulæ Van Diemen (vol. i. 1810); a supplement to this work appeared in 1830, relating to the Protaceæ only. He also wrote the General Remarks on Botany, attached to the narrative of Captain Flinders' expedition (1814). His adoption of the natural system of Jussieu led to its general substitution in place of the Linnean method. Brown's numerous memoirs in Transactions of societies, and other contributions to botanical science, secured for universal approval the title conferred on him by Alexander von Humboldt of 'facile princeps botanicorum.' In 1810 Brown received the charge of the library and splendid collections of Sir Joseph Banks, which in 1827 were transferred to the British Museum, when he was appointed keeper of the botanical department in that establishment. In 1811 he was elected F.R.S.; in 1832, D.C.L. of Oxford; and in 1833 was elected one of the foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France. In 1839 the Royal Society awarded him their Copley medal. Sir Robert Peel granted him a pension on the Civil List of £200 a year. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1849 to 1853. Darwin thought him 'chiefly remarkable for the minuteness of his observations, and their perfect accuracy. His knowledge was extraordinarily great;' much of it died with him, however, owing to his morbid fear of committing himself to mistakes. Brown died in London, June 10, 1858. A collected edition of Brown's works was published in Germany in 1825-34. The Ray Society in 1866-68 reprinted his complete works, except the Prodromus, under the editorship of Mr J. J. Bennett. See BOTANY.