96. 
Botanists and their Work. 
S.A* NAT .. VOL. XV. 
June 12th, 1934. 
Sweden had not hitherto taken a leading part in the science, 
but now appeared the “Father of Modern Botany,” Carl von 
Linne, usually known in English-speaking countries by his Latin¬ 
ised name of Linnaeus, 1707-1778. 
He was the first to invent, or at least to systematise, what 
is known as the binomial nomenclature. That is to say, he 
gave to each plant a generic name followed by a single specific 
one. Thus each plant has two names and no more, the first one 
indicating the genus, or larger group to which it belongs, and 
the second one distinguishing it as an individual in that genus. 
To give one example: a small medic, popularly known as Black 
Medic, from the colour of its pods, introduced in Australia and 
now quite common, was called by early botanists Trifolium pra- 
tense luteum capitulo breviore , i.e., “Yellow Meadow Clover with 
a shorter flowerhead.” Linnaeus cut this down to Me died go 
lupulina, and I think you will agree that it is an improvement. 
He travelled and botanised in his own country, in Holland, Ger¬ 
many, France and England, but he did not learn any modern lan¬ 
guage beyond his native Swedish, finding that Latin, in which 
all his own works were written, was usually a sufficient means 
of intercourse with his brother scientists. When visiting England 
he is said to have come upon a heath covered with gorse in flower 
—a shrub unknown in Sw r eden—and to have thanked God that 
he had been allowed to see a sight so beautiful. 
\ ou are probably saying that we have heard enough about 
botanists of the Old World and should turn to those who have 
concerned themselves with the Australian flora. There were 
great men before Agamemnon and there were several botanists— 
Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander and the two Forsters, father 
and son, besides the Frenchman, Labillardiere, who visited and 
botanised in Australia before Robert Brown, but the latter is of 
most interest to us because he was the first botanist who landed 
in South Australia. That was in January, 1802—132 years ago. 
r lhe son of a Scottish minister and a former student of the Uni¬ 
versity of Aberdeen, he was appointed, through the influence of 
Sir Joseph Banks, as botanist to the expedition which sailed from 
England to explore the coasts of Australia in 1801. The little 
vessel which carried them was called the “Investigator”, and the 
cap>tain was Matthew Flinders, whose recently erected statue on 
North Terrace we have all admired. If Flinders was the perfect 
seaman and marine surveyor, Brown was the perfect botanist. 
The expedition approached our coast—then quite unknown— 
from the West and the first landing-place was Fowler’s Bay and 
the date was January 29, 1802. “The botanical gentlemen land¬ 
ed early in the morning to examine the productions of the coun- 
