Five Fact Friday: Plant Hunters - Sir Joseph Banks

1. Sir Joseph Banks was born on sometime in February 1743 (various dates from various sources) in Argyll Street, London to landed gentry from Lincolnshire. He was the first unofficial director of Kew, sending out plant hunters to find and bring back new plant material. He was also president of the Royal Society for 43 years. Eventually moving to Revesby in Lincolnshire for peace and tranquility, he was sadly a chair-bound invalid by 1810. He died on 19 June1820.
2.  Instead for following eighteenth century expectations and partaking a Grand Tour of Italy, Banks secured the position of naturalist aboard HMS Niger for a seven-month survey of the Labrador and Newfoundland coastline in 1766. The resulting herbarium collection is held at the British Museum of Natural History.
3. Two years after his return, Banks paid £10,000 for himself and a team of nine to join Captain James Cook on his voyage to the South Seas to observe the transit of Venus, monitor British rivals and their quest for colonies, as well as secret orders to find Terra Australis.
4. April 17 1770 was the day Terra Australis land was first sighted. At one time this continent was to be named Banksia, but this didn't happen. However, Banks was so impressed by the abundance of plants, including species of the genus Banksia, at one location that he named the area Botany Bay.
5. Examples of plants introduced by Joseph Banks include: Banksia integrifolia, Callistemon citrinus, and the flame tree Brachychiton acerifolia

For more information see the video below form the Natural History Museum:

Resources:
Musgrave, T. (1998) The Plant Hunters, London, The Orion Publishing Group