The Lincolnshire landowner who was described by David Attenborough as a ‘passionate naturalist’ and ‘the great panjandrum of British science’.
Sir Joseph Banks didn’t technically found the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew — it was George III’s mother, Princess Augusta, who started a garden there — but he literally sowed the first seeds of it becoming a world centre for plant genetics that employs 400-plus scientists.
Banks sent seeds to Kew from his travels with…
