Peter Good

Peter Good (date of birth unknown, died 12 June 1803) was the gardener assistant to botanist Robert Brown on the voyage of HMS Investigator under Matthew Flinders,[1] during which the coast of Australia was charted, and various plants collected.

Biography

Good had worked as a foreman at Kew Royal Gardens, during which time he had assisted botanist Christopher Smith in transporting a shipment of English plants to Calcutta.[2] He was working as a kitchen gardener at Wemyss Castle, Scotland, when Joseph Banks offered him the appointment as gardener to Brown, at a salary of £105 a year.[3]

The voyage

Good made an extensive seed collection during the voyage, and also collected plant specimens for both his own and Brown's collections. He died of dysentery in Sydney Cove,[4] and his plant collection was incorporated into Brown's. Brown immensely admired his work ethic, and named the plant genus Goodia in his honour.[5] Banksia goodii (Good's Banksia) is also named after him.

See also

• List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

Works

• Journal of Peter Good, Gardener on Matthew Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis, 1801–03, Stationery Office Books, September 1981, ISBN 0-11-983258-5

Reference section

Notes

1. From the Ends of the Earth, Christian Lamb, Christian Lamb, 2004, ISBN 1-903071-08-9 p 40
2. The Letters of Sir Joseph Banks, Neil Chambers (ed), World Scientific, 2000, ISBN 1-86094-204-0 p 369
3. The Life of Matthew Flinders, Miriam Estensen, Allen & Unwin, 2003, ISBN 1-74114-152-4 p 147
4. Vallance, T.G., Moore, D.T. & Groves, E.W. 2001. Nature's Investigator The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801-1805, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, (pp.409-410) ISBN 0-642-56817-0
5. The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Robert Jameson, William Jardine and Henry Darwin Rogers, A. and C. Black, 1858 p333

References

• Estensen, Miriam (2002). The life of Matthew Flinders. Allen & Unwin.

Further reading

• Good, Peter (1981). Edwards Phyllis I. (ed.). The journal of Peter Good: gardener on Matthew Flinders voyage to Terra Australis 1801–03. Library of Australian History.
• Vallance, T.G., Moore, D.T. & Groves, E.W. (2001). Nature's Investigator: The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801-1805. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.ISBN 0-642-56817-0

External links

• Natural History Museum The Flinders 1801–1803 HMS Investigator Rock Collection