CXXll FLORA OF BERKSHrRE 



• Quae, Morisone, viro potuit oontingere major 



Gloria. Paeoniirm quam superasse genus? 

 Ipse tibi palmam Phoebus concedit Apollo, 

 Laoreaque est capiti quaelibet herba tuo.' 



The Life of Morison has been attributed to Hyde. Plot. Bobart. and 

 others. The manuscript of it is in the Sloane Collection, Britisli 

 Museum, and is in the handuriting of Pitcairne. Robert Gray, a 

 kinsman of Morison, in a letter in the same collection (No. 3198 

 writes : * Dear Sir, — Let me hear your answer as soon as you can. By 

 the .... I ■will send you the first part of this, for to send all at once 

 wold have been too bulkish. These marks ] = | sett to your own words. 

 I have not yet showed this to Capt. Hatton. who is so mighty critical 

 that nothing almost goeth down with him. The other part to be sent 

 is almost all which you sent first, and is larger than this which I send 

 now. Capt. Hatton counselled to have the ologia put in after the life. 

 as is usually done in the books of the antients such as you see in the 

 editions of Virgil. Ovid, and the lyke, but I fancy it may come better 

 in this way, and specially for Hay's sake. I wish that there were 

 more added to his character, as that he was communicative of his 

 knowledge, a true friend, an honest countryman, true to his religion, 

 whom neither the fair promises of the papists nor the threatenings of 

 others would prevail to alter or change, loyal to his prince, and the 

 like. This of religion is specially desired to be taken notice of. . . . 

 I beg you again to send this as soon back as possible with the 

 alterations you may think fit. I am your's, R. Gray. Jan. 8, [i6]98.' 

 The Captain Hatton here mentioned was the son of Lord Hatton 

 of St. Germains. He gave Boccone's plates and MSS. to Morison, who 

 subsequently published them, as has been already noted. 



It would seem that the Life of Morison was the work of more than one 

 writer. Bobart may have supplied the botanical portion. The so- 

 called third volume of the Historia was mainly his work, the last six 

 classes of Morison's system being finished by him. In the preface to 

 this volume, Bobart presents the reader with a general view of the 

 writers on Botany from Theophrastus to the time of Morison, enume- 

 rating in chronological order the most learned authors in this depart- 

 ment of knowledge that have appeared in the several nations of 

 Europe. He then speaks of the patronage and encouragement which 

 Morison had received from the University, and which had led him to 

 undertake the work ; and after lamenting the untimely death of the 

 author, he expresses his grateful sense of the honour acciniing to him 

 from its prosecution. An interval of nearly twenty years had given 

 Bobart the opportunity of inserting from the works of Ray, Hermann, 

 Plukenet. the Hortus Malaharicus and other sources, a great number of 

 plants unknown to Morison. English Botany had also had consider- 

 able additions made to it by the labours of Sloane, Petiver, Doody, 



