Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and paleobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope. His contributions include one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus and cytoplasmic streaming; the observation of Brownian motion; early work on plant pollination and fertilisation, including being the first to recognise the fundamental difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms; and some of the earliest studies in palynology. He also made numerous contributions to plant taxonomy, notably erecting a number of plant families that are still accepted today; and numerous Australian plant genera and species, the fruit of his exploration of that continent with Matthew Flinders.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He named many Australian plants.
Jacob Georg Agardh was a Swedish botanist, phycologist, and taxonomist.
William Henry Harvey, FRS FLS was an Irish botanist and phycologist who specialised in algae.
Otto Wilhelm Sonder was a German botanist and pharmacist.
The history of phycology is the history of the scientific study of algae. Human interest in plants as food goes back into the origins of the species, and knowledge of algae can be traced back more than two thousand years. However, only in the last three hundred years has that knowledge evolved into a rapidly developing science.
Nikolai Stepanovich Turczaninow was a Russian botanist and plant collector who first identified several genera, and many species, of plants.
The Fungi of Australia form an enormous and phenomenally diverse group, a huge range of freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats with many ecological roles, for example as saprobes, parasites and mutualistic symbionts of algae, animals and plants, and as agents of biodeterioration. Where plants produce, and animals consume, the fungi recycle, and as such they ensure the sustainability of ecosystems.
Edward Lee Greene was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part Landmarks of Botanical History and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American West.
George Maxwell (1804–1880) was a professional collector of plants and insects in Southwest Australia. The botanical specimens he obtained were used to make formal descriptions of the region's plant species.
James Eustace Bagnall ALS was an English naturalist with a particular interest in botany, especially bryology. He was the author of the first Flora of Warwickshire (VC38) in 1891. A noted bryologist, he wrote the Handbook of Mosses in the Young Collector Series, various editions of which were published between 1886 and 1910.
William West, FLS was an English pharmacist, botanist, microscopist and writer, particularly noted for his studies of freshwater algae. His sons, both botanists, were William West Jr with whom he did fieldwork, and George Stephen West with whom West co-wrote botanical publications for more than 20 years.
Henry Watts (1828–1889) was an Australian amateur collector of Algae specimens. He is considered "the pioneer of freshwater phycology in Victoria".
Raleigh Adelbert Black was an Australian botanist and public servant best known for his large private herbarium, most of which is housed at the National Herbarium of Victoria. His collection of Tasmanian plants is considered one of the largest and most representative collections of Tasmanian flora from the first half of the twentieth century.
Felix Maximilian Reader (1850–1911) was a German-born Australian chemist and amateur botanist.
Alexander Clifford "Cliff" Beauglehole was an Australian farmer, botanist, plant collector and naturalist.
Josephine Elizabeth Tilden was an American expert on pacific algae. She was the first woman scientist employed by the University of Minnesota. Tilden established a research station in British Columbia which lasted only until 1906. When Tilden became an assistant Professor in 1903, she was the first female scientist employed by the University of Minnesota. In 1910, despite not having a doctorate, Tilden was promoted to full professor.
George Stephen West, ARCS, FLS, was a British botanist, a specialist in phycology and protistology, a botanical illustrator and a writer. With his father, botanist William West, he collaborated on numerous scientific books. West's brother was the botanist William West Jr, who assisted their father with fieldwork.
Helen Isobel Aston was an Australian botanist and ornithologist.
Elizabeth Alice Flint was a New Zealand botanist who specialised in freshwater algae. She co-authored the three-volume series Flora of New Zealand Desmids in the 1980s and 1990s.
