16 ROBERT MORISON AND JOHN RAY 



in Rem Herbariam) in 1690, and did not finally disappear until 

 the time of Linnaeus. 



It was just when systematic Botany had fallen back to its 

 lowest level that Morison appeared upon the scene. He had 

 been born at Aberdeen in 1620, and had there graduated Master 

 of Arts with distinction by the time he was eighteen years old. 

 His further studies in the natural sciences were interrupted by 

 the Civil War, in which he took part on the Royalist side, being 

 severely wounded in the battle of the Brig of Dee (1644). He 

 fled to France, and there resumed his preparation for a scientific 

 career with such success that he obtained, in 1648, the degree of 

 Doctor of Medicine at the University of Angers. From that 

 time onwards he devoted himself entirely to the study of Botany, 

 which he pursued in Paris under the guidance of Vespasian 

 Robin, Botanist to the King of France. In 1650 Morison was 

 appointed by the Duke of Orleans, on Robin's recommendation, 

 to take charge of the royal garden at Blois, a post which he held 

 for ten years. The Duke of Orleans, shortly before his death 

 early in 1660, had occasion to present Morison to his nephew 

 King Charles II who was about to return to his kingdom. Soon 

 after the Restoration, the King summoned Morison to London ; 

 and in spite of tempting offers made to induce him to remain in 

 France, Morison obeyed the summons and was rewarded with 

 the title of King's Physician and Professor of Botany with 

 a stipend of two hundred pounds a year. During his tenure of 

 these offices Morison found time to complete his first botanical 

 work, the Praeludia Botanica, which was published in 1669 ; the 

 same year in which he was appointed Professor of Botany in 

 the University of Oxford. 



A few words may be devoted, at this point, to the rise and 

 progress of Botany in that University. In the year 1621, Lord 

 Danvers (afterwards Earl of Danby), thinking " that his money 

 could not be better laid out than to begin and finish a place 

 whereby learning, especially the Faculty of Medicine, might be 

 improved," decided to endow the University with a Physic 

 Garden, such as was already possessed by various Universities 

 on the Continent. With this object, he gave a sum of ^250 to 

 enable the University to purchase the lease of a plot of ground, 



