ESTIMATE OF MORISON 27 



is the fact that Morison's preface to the Historia contains a 

 sentence taken verbatim, without acknowledgment, from the 

 dedication of Cesalpino's De Plantis. Further, there is in the 

 Library at the Oxford Botanic Garden a copy of the De Plantis 

 containing many marginal notes which could not have been 

 written by any one but Morison. The explanation of the 

 position is probably this, that Morison regarded his classification 

 as so great an advance upon that of Cesalpino, that he did not 

 think it necessary to acknowledge what still remained of the 

 earlier writer's work : but in any case his omission to mention 

 Cesalpino was a grave error of judgment. 



At this point it may well be asked, what are Morison's actual 

 merits if, as it appears, he borrowed the leading principles of his 

 classification from his predecessors ? The most satisfactory 

 answer to this question is that which is provided by those who 

 lived and wrote at times but little removed from his own. Thus 

 Tournefort, in his Elemens de Botanique (1694: p. 19) speaking 

 of the work of Cesalpino and of Colonna, said " Pent-etre que la 

 chose seroit encore a faire si Morison. . .ne setoit avise de renouvel- 

 ler cette metode. On ne sauroit assez loiter cet auteur ; mats il 

 semble qu'il se loue lui-meme nn pen trop : car bien loin de se con- 

 tenter de la gloire d' avoir execute nne partie du plus beau projet 

 que Von ait jamais fait en Botanique, il ose comparer ses decou- 

 vertes a celles de Cristoffe Colomb, et sans parler de Gesner, de 

 Cesalpin, ni de Columna, il assure en plusieurs endroits de ses 

 ouvrages, quil na rien apris que de la nature memer Later, in his 

 Institutions Rei Herbariae (1700, p. 53) Tournefort expressed 

 the same opinion in somew r hat different words: " Legitima igitur 

 constititendorum generum ratio Gesnero et Columnae tribui debet, 

 eaque forte in tenebris adhuc jaceret, nisi Robertus Morisonus... 

 earn quasi ab Herbariis abalienatam renovasset, instaurasset ', et 

 primus ad usus quotidianos adjunxisset, qua in re summis laudibus 

 excipiendus, longe vero majoribus si a suis abstinuisset" 



The estimate formed of him by Linnaeus is clearly stated in a 

 letter addressed to Haller probably about the year 1737: "Morison 

 was vain, yet he cannot be sufficiently praised for having revived 

 system which was half expiring. If you look through Tourne- 

 fort's genera you will readily admit how much he owes to 



