This distinguished naturalist, though his name is not associated with any great work, or connected in the minds of men with any memorable discovery, was in reality so energetic, enthusiastic, and successful a promoter of science, as to be pronounced, by no mean authority, to have been "perhaps the most accomplished botanist of his day, and among the very first in the other branches of natural history." His zeal for science itself seems to have been so strong and ardent, that he took no pains to appropriate or perpetuate the fame, which his zealous labours in the cause worthily brought him. He was born on the 2nd of February, 1743, at Argyle Street, London, and not, as has been asserted, at Revesby, in Lin-colnshire, in after years the scene of his hospitality, when he left every summer for a short while his house in Soho Square, and its noble library, which was ever open to the student of science and the literary labourer. He had the advantage of being the representative of an ancient and opulent territorial family, and the heir of large estates.

After having been under the care of a private tutor, he was placed at Harrow school in his ninth year, but without showing any marked liking for his books. Four years later he was removed to Eton, where, for the first twelve months, he was only remarkable for his love of active amusement and indifference to ordinary study. His good-humour and cheerful disposition, however, were sufficient to insure some amount of popularity with masters and boys. Suddenly a change was produced in his tastes and habits, which, developing itself with time, raised him to the highest honours in the scientific world; and his conversion is thus accounted for. One day he was bathing in the river with a party of his schoolfellows, and having, perhaps from his fondness for the recreation, remained longer in the water than the others, was not dressed in time to leave the place with them. Having put on his clothes, he walked slowly and musingly along a green lane: and the evening being fine, the beauties of nature touched and impressed him with an unwonted and peculiar force. He contemplated, with delighted eye, the flowers that adorned the sides of the path, and exclaimed with rapture, "How beau-tiful! Would it not be far more reasonable to make me learn the names of these plants than the Greek and Latin I am confined to?" He soon recollected, however, that it was his duty, in the first place, to obey his father's wishes, and apply himself to the proper studies of the school. But henceforth his passion for botany grew and waxed daily stronger, and, not finding any more fitting teachers, he employed some women, occupied in gathering plants and herbs for the druggists, to give him such instruction as they could — the reward being sixpence for every piece of information they brought him. His tutor, so far from having reason to complain now, was surprised to find him reading intently and studiously even during the hours of play. When he went home for the holidays he was overjoyed to find an old tattered copy of Gerrard's "Herbal" in his mother's dressing-room, full of the. names and figures of plants, the originals of which he had already, in some slight degree, become acquainted with. He carried the precious book back to school with him, and continued his collection of plants, besides commencing one of butterflies and other insects. His pedestrian powers, which were remark able, now stood him in good stead; and his whole time, when out of school, was busily occupied in searching for and arranging plants and insects. In one of his excursions he fell asleep under a hedge, and being mistaken by a gamekeeper, who surprised him in that position, was carried before a magis-trate on suspicion of being a young poacher. A greater risk did he afterwards run, amid the snow of Terra del Fuego, when any yielding to drowsiness would have been inevitable death. On that occasion, two of the party actually perished from excessive cold, and Banks himself, with Dr. Solander, a favourite pupil of Linnaeus, narrowly escaped sharing their melancholy fate. While thus wander-ing, our naturalist contrived some days to kill as many as sixty birds with his own hand, and thus added immensely to his ornithological possessions. When Banks was eighteen years old, his father's death put him in possession of valuable estates in the counties of Derby and Lincoln; but instead of alluring him from his favourite study, this only incited him to pursue it with renewed and re-doubled ardour. On going to Oxford, finding to his disappointment that no lectures were delivered by the botanical professor, he immediately applied to that personage for leave to engage a lecturer, to be paid by the pupils attending him. Permission being freely granted, and no one in Oxford being found prepared to undertake the duty, Banks, with that characteristic energy which he exhibited in all future emergencies when in pursuit of knowledge, went forthwith to Cambridge, and speedily returned with a learned botanist under his wing, for whom he after-wards obtained the appointment of astronomer to Cap-tain Phipps, in his polar voyage. This gentleman gave lectures and lessons to those who concurred in the scheme, very much to the profit and instruction of Mr. Banks, of whom Lord Brougham writes in his "Lives of Men of Letters and Science:" — "Among true Oxonians, of course, he stood low. He used to tell, in after-life, that when he entered any of the rooms where discussions on classical subjects were going briskly on, they would say, 'There is Banks, but he knows nothing about Greek.' He made no reply, but he would say to himself, I shall very soon beat you all in a kind of knowledge I think infinitely more important;' and it happened, that soon after he first heard these jokes, as often as the classical men were puzzled on a point of natural history, they would say, 'We must go to Banks.' "

On leaving the University, when he came of ago, he continued his pursuits with great zeal and occu-pied much of his time in angling, which afforded himopportunities of observing the habits of fishes In 17bC he was elected a member of the Royal Society; and the same year set out on a voyage to

Newfoundland, from which he brought home an interesting collection of plants, insects, and other productions of nature, It happened soon after that the Government, at the suggestion of the Royal Society, resolved upon sending out competent persons to Otaheite for the purpose of making observa-tions on the transit of Venus over the sun's disc, expected to take place in 1769. The "Endeavour" was fitted out for the voyage, and the command given to a man eminently qualified for the important office.

The great navigator, Captain Cook, had early in life been indentured by his humble parents to the haberdasher of a small town near Newcastle. In this situation he conceived so strong a passion for the sea, that on some disagreement with his employer he bound himself apprentice to a Whitby collier, and soon became proficient in practical navigation.

Having volunteered into the navy in 1755, he soon, by his skill, conduct, and diligence, raised himself to posts of credit and confidence. He was now presented with a lieutenant's commission, and appointed to the command of the expedition. Banks obtained leave to accompany the celebrated navigator, and made his preparations worthy of a man who had an ample fortune, and knew how to use it for the benefit of others. In this expedition he procured a choice and valuable collection of natural specimens; in many cases at the hazard of his life, which was often endangered and sometimes even despaired of during the voyage.

When Captain Cook's second voyage was resolved upon, Sir Joseph expressed an earnest anxiety to accompany the skilful and gallant navigator; and having been thwarted in his wish, he with becoming spirit fitted out a vessel at his own expense, and set sail for Iceland in 1772. His voyage was most productive in a scientific point of view, and gained him much and well-merited fame.

In 1778 he succeeded Sir John Pringle as Presi-dent of the Royal Society, and soon after was created a baronet, and invested with the Order of the Bath. In 1795 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council.

He died full of honours, on the 19th of March, 1820, leaving his library and botanical collection to the British Museum, of which he had been a trustee.

His indefatigable industry, his watchful vigilance over the interests of science, the intrepidity with which he braved perils by land and sea in pursuit of knowledge, and his general excellences of charac-ter, entitle him, in the highest degree, to the regard, emulation, and admiration of posterity.