Definition of "botanize"

botanize

/ˈbɒtənaɪz/

verb
third-person singular simple present botanizes, present participle botanizing, simple past and past participle botanized
1. To do the work of a botanist, as to inventory the plant life in an area and to collect plants for research purposes.
  Quotations
  Dr Solander and Myself were botanizing
  1770, Joseph Banks, The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks, entry for 1770 January 22.
  When he was not studying, he was botanizing or mineralogizing with O'Toole's chaplain.
  1809, Maria Edgeworth, Ennui
  'Tis best when Frank takes his cousin ashore, / She loves botanising, / While Sissy who's left, can handle an oar / In a manner surprising.
  1878 June, “Ludovic” [pseudonym], “Epicene Boating”, in The Kentish Magazine, number II, Maidstone, Kent: Burgiss-Brown, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., […], page 63
  The only compensation he could get seems to have been to botanize and zoologize, as it were, on his visitors.
  1866, John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard, The Eclectic Magazine, volume IV, page 188
  There it erects tents capable of holding about one hundred and fifty people, and there the members and their friends gather for a fortnight to climb mountains, botanize, zoologize, or merely enjoy life.
  1931, Marie Beuzeville Byles, By Cargo Boat & Mountain, page 141