Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists — John Shaqi
Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists
History
Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists
Botanists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Botany -- Great Britain -- History
The _Pars Prima_, that was to have been devoted to Trees and Shrubs,
was never written. All that exists to represent it, is a stout MS.
volume in the Library at the Botanic Garden, Oxford, apparently in
Bobart's hand-writing, containing a classification and an enumeration
of the species of trees and shrubs, which may possibly have been
written with a view to publication.
A most interesting feature of Bobart's _Pars Tertia_ is the _Vita
Roberti Morisoni M.D._ with which the book opens, written by one of
Morison's intimate friends, Dr Archibald Pitcairn. It is the source
of all the available information regarding Morison up to the time of
his coming to Oxford; after that time much may be gathered concerning
him from the records of the University. It is also a loyal defence
of Morison and his system of classification against the criticisms
to which, even then, he had been subjected. It concludes with a
personal account of Morison, in which he is described as being
"vigorous in body, having a mind trained to every kind of study, of
ingenuous manners, calling a spade a spade, eager for true knowledge,
a despiser of filthy lucre, considering the public advantage rather
than his private gain." A portrait of him, here reproduced, forms the
frontispiece to the volume.
Such was the life of the man whose botanical works are now to be
considered: works that are not nearly so numerous as they are
considerable, as will be seen from the following enumeration and brief
description of them.
_Praeludia Botanica_, 1669: a small 8vo volume of about 500 pages,
which consists of the following parts:
(pp. 1-347): _Hortus Regius Blesensis Auctus._
(pp. 351-459): _Hallucinationes Caspari Bauhini in Pinace, item
Animadversiones in tres Tomos Universalis Historiae Johannis
Bauhini_.
(pp. 463-499): _Dialogus inter Socium Collegii Regii Gresham dicti
et Botanographum Regium_.
_Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova, per Tabulas Cognationis et
Affinitatis, ex Libro Naturae observata et detecta_, 1672.
_Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis Pars Secunda, seu Herbarum
Distributio Nova per Tabulas Cognationis et Affinitatis ex Libro
Naturae observata et detecta_, 1680.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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