BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



as a result, two were sent, the one under Captain John 

 Eoss in search of the North- West Passage ; the other, which 

 included Franklin, to sail northwards by the east coast of 

 Greenland. 



He was on several occasions invited to stand for Parlia- 

 ment, but always declined, preferring to devote his entire 

 time to his duties as President of the Eoyal Society, and 

 to the innumerable functions it entailed. 



It is sometimes said that Banks viewed with strong 

 disapproval the formation of other societies for the pursuit 

 of natural science. This was certainly so in the case of the 

 Astronomical Society, which he considered would seriously 

 decrease the importance of that over which he himself 

 presided. But this was only because he conceived the 

 objects of the former association to be so intimately con- 

 nected with those of the Eoyal Society that there would 

 not be sufficient scope for both. On the other hand, he 

 was one of the founders of the Linnean Society in 1788, 

 and took an even more prominent part in the formation of 

 the Eoyal Institution in 1*799. 



In March 1*779 he married Dorothea, daughter of 

 William Western Hugessen, Esq., of Provender, Kent. In 

 1782 Solander died, and from that time onward Banks 

 became more and more absorbed in the duties of the Eoyal 

 Society, and acted as chief counsellor in all scientific matters 

 to the king. In this capacity he had virtual control of the 

 Eoyal Gardens at Kew, then under the cultural care of 

 the elder Aiton, where were raised the plants produced by 

 seeds brought home by himself, and so many of the novelties 

 described in I'He'ritier's Sertum Anglicum, Aiton's Hortus 

 Kewensis, and other botanical works. It was due to his 

 indefatigable exertions and representations that the Eoyal 

 Gardens at Kew were raised to the position of the first in 

 the world, and that collectors were sent to the West Indies, 

 the Cape Colonies, and Australia, to send home living plants 

 and seeds, and herbaria, for the Eoyal Gardens. He kept 

 Francis Bauer (who, and his brother Ferdinand, were the most 

 accomplished botanical artists of the century) at Kew con- 



