[4] From Virginia, his first letter to Dr Morison at the Oxford Physic Garden was dated 1679: in it he listed the bounty of American oaks that would supplement Britain's impoverished flora:[5] dwarf, black, white, red, Spanish, chestnut, live or willow, shrubby.
Banister contemplated writing a natural history of Virginia; perhaps it was as a preliminary gesture he sent some fine botanical drawings and herbarium specimens to the botanist James Petiver, a London apothecary and Fellow of the Royal Society.
[9] Banister sent numerous occasional papers to the Royal Society that were published in its Philosophical Transactions, providing "the first scientific account for Virginia in the field of descriptive botany, entomology, and malacology.
He was accidentally shot dead by Jacob Colson while exploring the lower Roanoke River in company with some men of Byrd's entourage.
[15] Notable plants he collected and sent to his bishop, Henry Compton, in England included balsam fir (Abies balsamea), box elder (Acer negundo), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), liquidambar (Liquidambar styraciflua), scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea), and Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).