56 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



a professor of philosophy in several German universities. Though 

 he seems to have been a close observer of nature, his researches 

 had no great immediate effect on the progress of botaincal science, 

 but he deserves special mention for having been the first to assign 

 specific appellations to the different parts of plants, which were 

 adopted by Linne more than a century later. 



I spoke already of William Turner as the father of the British 

 botanical science. No other English name of eminence appears 

 on the scene till we come to Robert Morison. He was born in 

 Aberdeen in 1620, fought in the Royalist army against Cromwell, 

 went to Paris dining the period of the Commonwealth, where he 

 studied botany, was appointed court physician after the restora- 

 tion, and Liter on professor in Oxford. Although his striciures on 

 the work of Bauhin, entitled " Hallucinationes Caspari Bauhini," 

 have been severely condemned by subsequent writers, yet he 

 merits our approbation for the painstaking manner in which he 

 analyzed the works of his predecessors, and paved the way for a 

 better systematic arrangement in the direction of Caesalpino's 

 views. His " Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova " is 

 the first botanical monograph extant. The " Historia Plantarum 

 Universalis Oxoniensis," published by him in 1680, contains 

 copperplate illustrations, with analytic details. Plumier named 

 the West Indian genus Morisonia, order Capparideae, in his 

 honour. Almost contemporaneous with Morison was a more 

 celebrated scientific woiker, viz., John Ray, born in Essex 1628, 

 died in 1705. After studying theology he travelled in England 

 and on the Continent. Afterwards he received a pension, and 

 was able to devote his whole time to the study of zoology and 

 botany. Unlike Morison, he gladly acknowledged the merits of 

 others, passing over their errors, if possible, in silence. His great 

 botanical work is the " Historia Plantarum," 1686 to 1704, with- 

 out illustrations, the introduction to which may be looked upon as 

 a text-book of botany. Ray already recognized the difference 

 between dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants, and no one, 

 till the time of Jussien, showed a clearer appreciation of the 

 characters constituting natural affinities — excepting that he could 

 not free himself from the old-established ideas of strictly separating 

 herbaceous from woody plants. The genus Rajania of tl:e West 

 Indies, order Dioscorideae, was so named in honour of Ray. 

 The foundation of the Ray Society in 1844, in London, proves 

 how highly the labours of John Ray are appreciated by scientific 

 men. I regret exceedingly that I have no copy of any of iiis works 

 to submit for your inspection at present, but hope to be able to do 

 so at a future meeting. 



About the same period that Ra)' flourished another prominent 

 name appeared in the person of Marcelio Malpighi, professor of 

 medicine in Bologna, and physician to Pope Innocent XII., born 



