40 1 he South Australian N aturalist. 



was to be the city of Hobart, Brown accompanied them. He 

 twice ascended Mount Wellington, and visited the north coast 

 to collect in the vicinity of what is now Lannceston. Brown 

 arrived in England on October 13, 1805, after a "tedious and 

 uncomfortable voyage" of nearly five months. 



During the next five years he was employed by the Admir- 

 alty, under the supervision of the all-powerful Banks, in 

 arranging and describing over 4,000 plants, many of them new 

 to science, which he had collected in every State of the Common- 

 wealth. In 1810 Avas published his most important book. 

 ''Prodromus Florae Novas Holland^e,'' which Sir Joseph Hooker 

 characterised as ''one that marks an epoch in the history of 

 botanical science.'' 



Brown now entered the service of Sir Jose])h Banks as his 

 librarian, and retained that position until Banks died in 1820. 

 It was then found that he had bequeathed Brown an annuity of 

 £200 a year, the use of his library, herbarium, and scientific col- 

 lection, and, after the death of Lady Banks, Brown was to have 

 the lease of Sir Joseph 's town house in Soho Square, London. 



During the remainder of Brown's long life he became an 

 important official in the Botanical Department of the British 

 Museum. In 1828 he directed attention to the phenomenon 

 knoAvn to microscopists as "Brownian" movements. It is exhi- 

 bited in plants, and likewise in a drop of water containing 

 minute particles. Water containing gamboge in solution and 

 viewed with a quarter-inch objective, or higher power, enables 

 this curious molecular bombardment to be seen. 



In the interesting autobiographical chapter contained in 

 ''The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, '^ there is a passage 

 vxiiich we shall quote, for it admirablj^ sums up the idiosyn- 

 crasies of Brown in his old age as seen by the then younger 

 naturalist. Darwin says: — "I saw a great deal of Robt. Brown 

 . . . . He seemed to me to be chiefly remarkable for the 

 minuteness of his observations and their perfect accuracy. His 

 knowledge was extraordinarily great, and much died Avith him. 

 owing to his excessive fear of ever making a mistake. He 

 poured out his knowledge to me in the most unreserved manner, 

 yet was strangely jealous on some points. I called on him two 

 or three times before the voyage of the 'Beagle,' and on one 

 occasion he asked me to look through a microscope and describe 

 what I saw. This I did, and believe now that it was the mar- 

 vellous currents of protoplasm in some vegetable eell. I then 



