286 BANKS BANKSIA to that office, which he held for 42 years. In 1781 he was created a baronet. Soon after, on the sudden death of Dr. Solander, he abandoned his purpose of publishing the results of his ob- servations and discoveries in botany. In 1795 he received the order of the Bath, in 1797 was made a privy councillor, and in 1802 was chosen a member of the national institute of France. With the exception of brief memoirs or occasional communications to the trans- actions of societies, he published no account of his large collections on natural history, or of the results of his studies and observations. A small work on "Blight, Mildew, or Rust in Corn," and another on "Merino Sheep," are his only published books. He dispensed his large fortune with liberality, aiding in most of the scientific enterprises of his time, and re- lieving the necessities of scholars and travel- lers. The African association and the Botany Bay colony owed their origin to him. His im- mense library and scientific collections were bequeathed to the British museum. BANKS, Nathaniel Prentiss, an American states- man and general, born in Waltham, Mass., Jan. 30, 1816. While a boy he worked in a cot- ton factory in his native village, of which his father was overseer, and afterward learned the machinist's trade. He devoted his leisure hours to study, and at an early age lectured before political meetings, lyceums, and tem- perance societies ; he afterward became editor of the village paper of Waltham, and received an oifice under the Polk administration in the Boston custom house. About this time he was admitted to the bar, and in 1849 was elected to the house of representatives of Massachu- setts. In 1851 he was chosen speaker of the house as one of the prominent advocates of the "coalition" between the democrats and the freesoilers, by which the ancient rule of the whigs was overthrown in Massachusetts. He was again elected the following year by the same combination, also representative to the ensuing congress. In the summer of 1853 he was president of the convention called to re- vise the constitution of the state. During his first term in congress he withdrew from the democratic party, and in 1854 was reelected with the support of both the " know-nothing " or American and republican parties, and in December, 1855, was adopted as the candidate of the latter for speaker. After a contest of more than two months, he was elected on the 133d ballot by a small plurality. He was a member of the next congress, and was nomi- nated in separate conventions of the American and republican parties for the office of gov- ernor of Massachusetts, to which he was elect- ed in November, 1857, and reelected in 1858 and 1859. In 1860 he succeeded Capt. G. B. McClellan as president of the Illinois Central railroad ; but on the breaking out of the civil war, in 1861, he received a major general's commission, and was assigned to the 5th corps of the army of the Potomac, with hia command at first on the upper Potomac, and afterwaroi in the valley of the Shenandoah. A portion of his troops fought with success at Winchester, March 23, 1862. On May 24 he was attacked by the confederate Gen. T. J. Jackson at Stras- burg, and forced to retreat rapidly to the Po- tomac. As commander of a corps under Gen. Pope he fought the battle of Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9 ; and after participating in Gen. Sigel's movements in the valley of Virginia, in Sep- tember he was put in command of the city of Washington. In December he succeeded Gen. Butler as commander of the department of the gulf, with his headquarters at New Orleans. In April, 1863, he captured Opelousas, and in July took Port Hudson, completing the opening of the Mississippi river. In the spring of 1864 he made an unsuccessful expedition up the Red river, and in May of that year was relieved of his command. He was elected to congress in his old district in November, 1864, and was reelected in 1866, 1868, and 1870, serving as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. In the canvass of 1872 he took an active part in favor of the election of Horace Greeley as president of the United States. BANKS, Thomas, an English sculptor, horn at Lambeth, Dec. 22, 1735, died in London, Feb. 2, 1805. His father gave him a good education, and then placed him under the instruction of Kent, the architect. In 1770 he won the gold medal of the royal academy. His group of "Mercury, Argos, and lo" fairly established his reputation. In 1772 he went to Rome as the academy's foreign student, and spent three years there studying the antique models and exercising his own talents. He produced sev- eral groups, among them "Caractacus plead- ing before Claudius," and "Psyche and the Butterfly." The latter was purchased by the empress Catharine II., who invited him to visit St. Petersburg, where he was cordially received and commissioned to execute a group called "Armed Neutrality." His masterpiece, the " Mourning Achilles," was placed in the Brit- ish institution. Elected a member of the acad- emy, he presented to that institution a fine fig- ure of a fallen Titan. His most popular work was a monument representing the infant daugh- ter of Sir Brooke Boothby. BANKSIA, a name given to several distinct genera of plants in honor of Sir Joseph Banks. The one to which the name properly applies belongs to the family of proteacea, and was named by Linnasus in honor of its discoverer, who accompanied Capt. Cook in his second voyage. The genus comprises several species, nearly all natives of Australia and the neigh- boring islands, where their beautiful forms and foliage are a conspicuous part of the landscape. The colonists consider their presence a mark of bad land. The leaves are hard, often broad, and closely cover the branches ; the flower and fruit are in compact blunt cones, usually downy or woolly, and the flowers project so as to form a spike. As ornamental shrubs the
