British
naturalist and explorer.
- He accompanied
Capt James Cook on his voyage around the world 1768-71 and brought
back 3,600 plants, 1,400 of them never before classified.
- The Banksia
genus of shrubs is named after him.
- Banks was born
in London and educated at Oxford.
- Inheriting a
fortune, he made his first voyage 1766, to Labrador and Newfoundland.
- In 1768 Banks
obtained the position of naturalist on an expedition to the southern
hemisphere in the Endeavour, commanded by Capt James Cook.
- The expedition
explored the coasts of New Zealand and Australia.
- Banks's plant-collecting
activities at the first landing place in Australia (near present-day
Sydney) gave rise to the name of the area - Botany Bay.
- He also studied
the Australian fauna.
- Returning to
England 1771, he brought back a vast number of plant specimens, more
than 800 of which were previously unknown.
- As a result
of the friendship between Banks and George III, the Royal Botanic
Gardens at Kew - of which Banks was the honorary director - became
a focus of botanical research.
- In 1772 Banks
went on his last expedition, to Iceland, where he studied geysers.
- He was instrumental
in establishing the first colony at Botany Bay in 1788.
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