Robert Brown
Robert Brown, (born Montrose, Scotland December 21, 1773; died at Soho Square, London, June 10, 1858) is acknowledged as the leading British botanist to collect in Australia during the first half of the 19th century.Studied medicine and joined the army as a surgeon in 1795. One of the scientists who accompanied Matthew Flinders on his historic voyage to chart the coast of Australia, leaving Britain in December 1801 and ending in Sydney in June 1803. Brown stayed in Australia until May 1805. He published the results of his collecting in his famous Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae in 1810.
He succeeded Jonas C. Dryander as Sir Joseph Banks' librarian, and on Banks' death in 1820 inherited his library and herbarium. This was transferred to the British Museum where Brown became the first Keeper of the Botanical Department.
