Robert Brown and Mungo Park: Travels and Explorations in Natural History for the Royal Society (Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden, 122)

Explorer-naturalists Robert Brown and Mungo Park played a pivotal role in the development of natural history and exploration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This work is a fresh examination of the lives and careers of Brown and Park and their impact on natural history and exploration. Brown and Park were part of a group of intrepid naturalists who brought back some of the flora and fauna they encountered, drawings of what they observed, and most importantly, their ideas. The educated public back home was able to gain an understanding of the diversity in nature. This eventually led to the development of new ways of regarding the natural world and the eventual development of a coherent theory of organic evolution. This book considers these naturalists, Brown, Park, and their contemporaries, from the perspective of the Scottish Enlightenment. Brown's investigations in natural history created a fertile environment for breakthroughs in taxonomy, cytology, and eventually evolution. Brown's pioneering work in plant taxonomy allowed biologists to look at the animal and plant kingdoms differently. Park's adventures stimulated significant discoveries in exploration. Brown and Park's adventures formed a bridge to such journeys as Charles Darwin's voyage on H.M.S. Beagle, which led to a revolution in biology and full explication of the theory of evolution. Page 4 of cover Preface Acknowledgments Contents Introduction: Collecting, Observing, and Describing the Natural World Chapter 1: Scientific Ferment in Late Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment Chapter 2: Scientific Exploration During Voyages of Discovery Banks’s Role in Advancing Exploration in Natural History Chapter 3: “... The Plants of Scotland Might Be Equally Useful” Robert Brown’s Early Life Mungo Park Travels to Sumatra Chapter 4: Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Park’s First African Adventure Park Search in the Interior Park’s Capture Park’s Escape Park’s Travels Home Park’s Celebrated Return Aftermath of Park’s Journey Chapter 5: A Good Practical Botanist The Fencibles in Ireland Brown’s Extended Stay in Britain The Plan to Explore New Holland Brown’s Opportunity Brown’s Appointment as Naturalist on H.M.S. Investigator Chapter 6: So Remote a Country as New Holland Madeira Cape Town Western Australia Southern Australia The Great Australian Bight Encounter with the French Bass Strait, Victoria Port Jackson, New South Wales Chapter 7: The Crew Laboring Under the Same Disorder Toward the Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef Torres Strait, Queensland Northern Territory The North Coast Timor and Then Sydney Chapter 8: Mungo Park’s Last Journey Park’s Life at Home Life as a Scottish Country Doctor Park’s Opportunity for Further Adventure Park’s Fateful Journey Chapter 9: A Tedious and Uncomfortable Passage Brown’s Journeys from Sydney Tasmania Work in the Hunter River Area The Return Home Chapter 10: Prodromus, Florae Novae Hollandiae The Salisbury Affair Proteaceae Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae Botanicorum Facile Princeps Chapter 11: Banks’s Librarian Botany of Terra Australis Reproductive Structures in Mosses Caley’s Assessment of Brown’s Work Brown’s Association with Smith and Other Naturalists The Herbarium of Professor Christian Smith Henry Salt’s Collection from Abyssinia The Largest Flower in the World The Natural Family, Compositae Brown Assesses His Future Chapter 12: Taking Leave of Sir Joseph Banks Brown as a Clearinghouse in Natural History The Politics of the Royal Society Chapter 13: Pollen Grains of Clarkia pulchella Brownian Movement and Brown’s Microscopy Brown’s Observation of the Nucleus Work on Thomas Horsfield’s Observations Brown’s Final Years Epilogue: The Greatest of Banksian Botanist-Librarians Bibliography Books and Papers by Brown and Park Index