He started work as an assistant in the Herbarium at
Kew in 1873, and was promoted to the position of Assistant Keeper in 1909, which he kept until 1914. He produced many annotated drawings of succulent plants in his work revising the genus
Mesembryanthemum, which were published in 1931. He was the author of several works on the taxonomy of plants, particularly
succulents. The
Araceae genus
Nebrownia was named in his honour by
Otto Kuntze. A number of plants bear the specific name "
nebrownii" – such as
Acacia nebrownii,
Gibbaeum nebrownii,
Caralluma nebrownii and
Lithops olivacea v nebrownii, as does a waterhole in the
Etosha National Park. The plant
Anthurium brownii and the genus
Brownanthus (now a synonym of
Mesembryanthemum) also bear his name. He was awarded the
Captain Scott Memorial Medal by the
South African Biological Society in recognition of his work on SA flora, and in 1932 an
honorary D.Sc. was conferred on him by the
University of the Witwatersrand. His publications appeared mainly in the
Kew Bull. and in
Flora Capensis. He married the daughter of
Thomas Cooper (1815–1913), another Kew botanist. ==References==