15ANKS AS BOTANIST. 15 



1hem when it is in uiy poAver and io report to tlieir Lordships 

 the profjress made by each in his respective dejiartment once a 

 year at least." 



On the death of Dryander in 1810 Brown succeeded him as 

 librarian to Sir J. Banks, and remained in charge of the liliraiy and 

 lierbarinm until the death of his patron in 1820. At Banks's death 

 it was found that his magnificent lihrary of Natural History, his 

 Iterbarium, manuscripts, drawing-:, engravings and other collec- 

 tions had been be()ueatlied to the British Museum subject to alife- 

 interesfc in them by Bobert Brown, who however was empowered 

 to cause tlie collections to be transferred to the Museum during his 

 life-time. This transfer was effected in 1827, and the Botanical, 

 •or, as it was for many years known, the Banksian Department 

 of the British Museum was established, under the keepership of 

 Robert Brown, a lasting monument of the devotion of Paiiks 

 to the, Science of Botany in the pursuit of which he had travelled 

 far, spent imich and \\orked unremittingly. 



BANKS AS BOTANIST. 

 By James Brittetv', F.L.S. 



The position of Banks as a ]noneer of scientific travel and as a 

 patron of science generally has been so universally recognized 

 and has been so sun)mari/.ed by the two previous speakers, that it 

 might seem that there was little left to say about him. 13ut there 

 remains an aspect of his work which has onlv ni comparatively 

 recent times received the attention \\ hich it deserves, and which 

 it has been thought might adequately form the subject of a few 

 remarks on this occasion. Tiiat 1 should have been honoured 

 with a request to say something about Banks as a botanist is due 

 to the fact that I have for nearly half a century been intimately 

 acquainted with the m;iterial supplied by the Herbarium of which 

 his collections were the foundation. 



It is by such intimate acquaintance, not only with the collections 

 but with the other material contained in the l)ej)artmeiit of the 

 British Museum which was at one time known as '" the Banksian," 

 that an adequate estimate of Banks's knowledge can be formed. 

 Of that material an important item is the transcript of his Cor- 

 respondence, in twenty-one volumes, by the daughters of Dawson 

 Turner; the distressing history of the originals of this is set forth 

 by Mr. Carruthers in a letter to Sir Joseph Hooker prefixed to 

 his publication of Banks's Journal — itself printed fnua a similar 

 transcript in the same Department. 



