BROWN, Robert, Scottish botanist: b. Montrose, 21 Dec. 1773; d. London 10 June 1858. He finished his education in 1'95, when he became ensign and assistant surgeon in a Fifeshire fencible regiment, which he accom panied to Ireland, remaining there till 1800. He was then, through the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, appointed naturalist to Captain Flinders' surveying expedition to Australia or New Hol land. The whole continent of Australia was circumnavigated, the coast at various points examined, and Brown remained in the colony, visiting various parts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, till 1805. He returned with nearly 4,000 species of plants, was shortly after appointed librarian to the Linnaan So ciety and was now able to devote himself to the systematic study of his plants. He con tinued to make the result of his investigations known in communications to the Linnman and Royal societies. One of his earliest papers was on a group of the family of plants named by Jussieu ApocyneeP, which he succeeded in estab lishing as a separate family under the title already given them by Jussieu of Asckpiadea. In 1810 he published the first volume of the great work he had been preparing on the plants of Australia and Tasmania, entitling it 'Pro dromus Florae Nova Hollandia et Insula Van Diemen.) No second volume of it ever ap peared. He was the first English writer on botany who adopted the natural system of classification which has since entirely superseded that of Linnaeus. In 1814 he published a botan ical appendix to Captain Flinders' account of his voyage, entitled 'General Remarks, Geo graphical and Systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis.' In 1828 he published a brief 'Account of Microscopical Observations on the Particles Contained in the Pollen of Plants, and on the General Existence of Active Mole cules in Organic and Inorganic Bodies.' He
was the first to call attention to the presence of these active molecules. The movement of the granules of the fovilla (or semi-fluid mat ter contained in the pollen grains) which he believed to be purely physical, or non-organic, has on the Continent acquired the name of the Brownian or Brunonian movement. He also wrote botanical appendices for the voyages of Ross and Parry, the African exploration of Denham and Clapperton and others, and de scribed, with Dr. Bennet, the plants collected by Dr. Horsfield in Java. In 1810 he re ceived the charge of the collections and library of Sir Joseph Banks, which were afterward bequeathed to him for life. He transferred them in 1827 to the British Museum and was appointed keeper of botany in that institution. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1811, D.C.L. of Oxford in 1832, a foreign asso ciate of the French Academy of Sciences in He had the Copley medal in 1839 and was appointed president of the Linnnan So ciety in 1849. He also received the decoration of the highest Prussian order of civil merit, presided over by Baron Humboldt, who called him Botanicorum facile princeps. As a bot anist Brown occupied the very highest rank. He made the microscope and the study of de velopment the basis of his classification, and by his skill in the application of ascertained facts to the elucidation of obscure and the explanation of doubtful phenomena, greatly ad vanced our scientific knowledge of the vege table kingdom. His works, contained chiefly in the 'Transactions' of learned societies and other inaccessible forms, are not of a nature to be popular. See BROWNIAN MOVEMENT.