Robert Brown

Robert Brown (1773-1858), influential British botanist. Born in Montrose, Scotland, Brown studied medicine and the natural sciences at the University of Edinburgh. In 1800 he was invited by the British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks to join a survey of the Australian coasts. On his return in 1805 he brought with him nearly 4000 species of Australian plants. In 1810 he was placed in charge of Banks's library and collections, which in 1827 were transferred to the British Museum. Brown was then appointed keeper of the botanical department of the museum. His most notable scientific contributions were the discovery of the movement of microscopic particles, called Brownian motion; the discovery of the nucleus of the vegetable cell; and the discovery of the distinction between gymnosperms and angiosperms (see Seed). Brown was especially influential in adopting the classification system of the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, which replaced that of the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (see Classification).