XXII 
SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 
No. 7. — Sir Joseph Banks. Wa.\ ^Medallion, modelled by James Tassie, 1785. 
His father died in during his first year at Oxford, leaving 
him an ample fortune and estate at Revesby. 
His liking for botany — which had shown itself during his boyhood — 
increased while at the University, and he warmly embraced other 
branches of natural history. Finding that no lectures were given in 
botany, he sought and obtained permission to procure a teacher, to 
be paid by the students. He then went by stage-coach to Cambridge, 
and brought back with him Mr. Israel Lyons, astronomer and botanist, 
who afterwards published a small book on the Cambridge Flora. 
Many years subsequently, Lyons, through the interest of Banks, was 
