Richard Collins: 200 years since the death of a botanical master

The names of literary giants and great philosophers spawn adjectives, ‘Shakespearian’, ‘Marxist’, and ‘Platonic’, for instance. Few scientific celebrities are so honoured, although ‘Darwinian’ has entered the lexicon.

This year sees the 200th anniversary of death of the man who gave botanists the term ‘Banksian’; the genus Banksia has some 170 plant species.