Brown, Robert

a distinguished botanist, born at Montrose, son of an Episcopal clergyman; accompanied an expedition to survey the coast of Australia in 1801, returned after four years' exploration, with 4000 plants mostly new to science, which he cla ified and described in his "Prodromus Floræ Novæ Holland iæ"; became librarian to, and finally president of, the Linnean Society; styled by Humboldt botanicorum facile princeps ; he was a man of most minute and accurate observation, and of a wide range of knowledge, much of which died along with him, out of the fear of committing himself to mistakes (1773-1858).