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Robert Brown Facts & Worksheets

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist who pioneered the use of the microscope in botany, which he used to describe the nucleus of a cell.

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Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist who pioneered the use of the microscope in botany, which he used to describe the nucleus of a cell. He also developed the idea of what is now called the Brownian motion which explained the random movement of minute particles in a fluid.

See the fact file below for more information on the Robert Brown or alternatively, you can download our 22-page Robert Brown worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE & FAMILY

  • Robert Brown was born on December 21, 1773, in Montrose, Scotland.
  • He was born the only son of James Brown, a Scottish Episcopalian clergyman, and Helen Brown née Taylor, a daughter of a Presbyterian minister.
  • Young Robert attended Montrose Academy, a local Grammar School, and Marischal College at Aberdeen.
  • When Brown was 17 years old, his family moved to Edinburgh, and he had to withdraw from the college in his fourth year.
  • Robert’s father died the following year.
  • Brown studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and University of Edinburgh.

BOTANICAL STUDIES

  • Robert Brown dropped out of studying medicine in 1793.
  • Brown grew interested in botany and made expeditions into the Scottish Highlands to collect and study plants.
  • He extensively studied the plants he collected and wrote detailed botanical descriptions of them.
  • His early botanical studies motivated him to initiate correspondence with British botanists.
  • He corresponded with some of the pioneering British botanists at the time, James Dickson and William Withering.
  • Brown also collected plant specimens for them to study.
  • Brown discovered a new species of grass, Alopecurus alpinus.
  • He also delivered his first botanical paper, “The botanical history of Angus” to the Edinburgh Natural History Society in 1792.
  • The paper was not published in his lifetime.
  • From 1795 to 1800, he served in the British army in Ireland as an assistant surgeon.
  • Brown was an established botanist before the 19th century began.
  • He had been nominated to the Linnean Society of London.
  • He had an algae species named after him: Conferva brownii (now named Aegagropila linnaei).

AUSTRALIA EXPEDITION

  • In 1798, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society recommended Brown to be a naturalist aboard the Investigator.
  • In July, 1801, Brown began to sail with the expedition.
  • Under the command of Matthew Flinders, the ship traveled along the Australian coasts to survey the land.
  • The ship reached King George Sound, Western Australia in December, 1801.
  • There was much botanical diversity in King George Sound.
  • During this expedition, Brown collected many plant specimens.

MAJOR WORK

  • When he got back to England in 1805, he began his extensive classification of the specimens he collected.
  • He had gathered around 3,900 species!
  • Five years later, Brown published partial results of the botanical studies he had done from the flora collected on the expedition.
  • His publication, which is considered his major work, was entitled “Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.”
  • Brown’s publication contributed to previous plant classification systems as well as established the foundations for Australian flora.

FURTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  • As a botanical researcher, Brown was very meticulous and included as many significant details as possible no matter how small they were.
  • He then went on to publish his studies on the plant family Proteaceae.
  • His study proved that pollen grain could help in re-classifying plants.
  • In 1820, Brown inherited the extensive library and plant collection of Sir Joseph Banks.
  • Seven years later, Brown became the head of the botanical department of the British Museum and bequeathed the Banks’ collection to the museum.
  • Brown was also the first to distinguish gymnosperms from angiosperms.

BROWNIAN MOTION

  • In 1828, Brown published “A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations,” a pamphlet about his observations of the random motion of microscopic particles.
  • The particles are now known as amyloplasts.
  • Brown observed that these particles were in rapid motion within pollen grains of many plants.
  • After further experimentation, he noticed similar movement with other substances suspended in water.
  • His observation is now known as the Brownian motion, which is a general property of matter revealing random oscillatory movement of particles suspended in fluid.

CELL NUCLEUS

  • In his studies, he used the microscope extensively to observe plant specimens.
  • Brown demonstrated exceptional ability in drawing conclusions from selected data.
  • In 1831, he coined the term “nucleus” of a cell upon studying plants that led to his observation of the existence of a structure within plant cells.
  • He was not the first to observe the nucleus of a cell, but he was the one who came up with the term nucleus.

HONOR & LEGACY

  • Brown became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1810.
  • He was the president of the Linnean Society for four years (1849 to 1853).
  • A number of Australian plant species are named after Brown, such as Brown’s box (Eucalyptus brownii) and Brown’s banksia (Banksia brownii).
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Robert Brown

Robert Brown Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Robert Brown across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Robert Brown worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Robert Brown who was a Scottish botanist who pioneered the use of the microscope in botany, which he used to describe the nucleus of a cell. He also developed the idea of what is now called the Brownian motion which explained the random movement of minute particles in a fluid.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Robert Brown Facts
  • Biography of Brown
  • Discovery Timeline
  • Brown or Bluff
  • Australian Discoveries
  • Motion Illustration
  • Under the Microscope
  • Parts of a Cell
  • British Botanists
  • Plant Profile
  • My Own Expedition

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