Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown ( born December 21, 1773 in Montrose, Scotland, † June 10, 1858 in London, England) was a Scottish botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " R.Br. ".
Life and work
Robert Brown studied at the University of Edinburgh medicine and botany. In 1795 he was stationed as a military doctor in Ireland. He collected numerous plants and there met the London botanist Sir Joseph Banks, which enabled him to participate in a trip to Australia on a survey vessel. Brown collected and studied there from 1801 to 1805 almost 4000 largely unknown plant species. After his return he was employed until 1810 with the processing of this collection, published his results and then finally managed as a librarian at the Linnean Society, Joseph Banks ' extensive collections of books and plants. After Banks ' death, his collections went to the British Museum, and Brown got a job there as a librarian and curator of the botanical collections. From 1849 to 1853, Brown was president of the Linnean Society, and published many papers.
Brown's first floristic work consisted in the study of mosses that were still very inadequately explored. It was clear to him that exact histological and anatomical studies with the help of the microscope were very promising for the systematic classification of plants according to the natural system of Augustin- de Candolle Pyrame. So he made decisive discoveries in plant morphology. He recognized the fundamental differences in the construction of the ovules of conifers and cycads ( Cycadophyta ) compared to other higher plants and bordered them as gymnosperms ( gymnosperms ) of the flowering plants ( Magnoliophyta ) from. He also examined the development of ovules and different so the first time integuments, nucellus and embryo sac and endosperm and Perisperm.
In the study of the fertilization process in orchids he observed in the cells again and again a small body, although the others had seen before him, the meaning of it but misunderstood. 1831 Brown gave him the name nucleus and measured him an important role in embryonic development. With this discovery of the nucleus Brown influenced, among others, the botanist Matthias Jacob Schleiden and so took influence on the development of the cell theory.
The foundations of the most famous discovery Browns, Brownian motion, lie outside the area of botany and were resolved in 1905 by Albert Einstein in 1906 by Marian Smoluchowski.
Honors
In 1812 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, the Copley Medal in 1839 awarded him. In 1818 he was elected a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina. In 1842 he was admitted to the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. To him, the genus Brunonia Sm of the plant family of Goodeniengewächse ( Goodeniaceae ) was named in honor.