Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)

Robert Brown (1773 to 1858) was a Scottish botanist and paleobotanist who advanced botany above all through his pioneering use of the microscope. Born in Montrose, he began medical studies at the University of Edinburgh but gave more of his time to botany, served as an army surgeon in Ireland and in 1801 sailed as naturalist on Matthew Flinders' voyage to Australia. His 1810 Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae was the first systematic account of the Australian flora. Brown gave one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus, which he named in a paper of 1831 to the Linnean Society, and he observed the motion of particles that became known as Brownian motion. He also recognised the fundamental difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms and erected plant families still accepted today. He became librarian to Joseph Banks, inherited his collection, became the first Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British Museum in 1837, and served as president of the Linnean Society from 1849 to 1853.