List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment

Naturalists, including botanists and zoologists, were an integral part of these voyages and the new discoveries were recorded not only in their journals but by on-board illustrators and artists.

Their specialist skills as horticulturist-gardeners were often combined with a knowledge of botany as they cared for the economically important plant cargos, often living, on the long sea journeys.

Naturalists on these expeditions generally enjoyed the privileges of the officers — including eating with the captain and the relative comfort of special sleeping quarters; in contrast, the gardeners would be bunked with the crew.

[5] The best-known gardener-botanists included those sent from the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, but mainly the Jardin du Roi (after the Revolution this became the Jardin des Plantes at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle) in Paris and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London as France and Britain sought to expand their colonial empires and influence by sea.

[6] Joseph Banks, following his botanical collecting with Daniel Solander at Botany Bay and elsewhere in New Holland, had maintained a keen interest as a patron of scientific work in this region.