4 INTRODUCTION 



ment of a Trofessor till the year 1669, when Dr. Robert 

 Morison * made application to the University for the appoint- 

 ment ; upon which it was agreed that an annual stipend of 

 ^40 should be allowed him on condition of his reading lectures 

 at certain times, most convenient to himself, during the spring 

 and autumn. Accordingly he delivered his inaugural lecture 

 in the School of Medicine on September 2, 1670: and 

 on the 5th of that month removed to the Physic Garden, 

 where he " read in the middle of it (with a table before him) 

 on herbs and plants thrice a week " to a considerable audience. 

 The following spring and autumn his course of lectures was 

 repeated, and occasionally, as it would appear, afterwards, for 

 in 1675 Evelyn attended one of them. He was diverted, 

 however, from continuing them regularly by the prosecution 

 of his great work, the " Historia Plantarum Oxoniensium," 

 of which he first published a specimen under the title of 

 " Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio nova," and afterwards 

 a volume of the same work, entitled " Plantarum Historiae 

 Universalis Oxoniensis pars secunda," containing a description 

 of herbaceous plants only ; the account of the trees and 

 shrubs, which was to constitute the first part of his work, 

 having never been printed. 



* This learned botanist was a native of Aberdeen, where he received 

 his education. Espousing the royal cause during the troubles, he received 

 a dangerous wound in the shoulder at the battle of Brigg, near Aberdeen ; 

 and upon his recovery took refuge in Paris, where he applied himself 

 assiduously to the study of anatomy, botany, and zoology. In 1648 he 

 took the degree of Doctor of Physic at Angers. From his skill in botany 

 he was appointed superintendent of the Duke of Orleans' fine garden at 

 Blois, which he held till the death of the duke in 1660. Being known to 

 Charles II., he was invited to England by that monarch, and appointed 

 king's physician and Professor of Botany, with an appointment of ^200 

 and a house, as superintendent of the royal gardens. He died in London, 

 Nov. 9, 1683, aged sixty-three, from a bruise on his breast by the pole of a 

 coach as he was crossing the street between the end of St. Martin's Lane 

 and Northumberland House. 



Prof. Vines has recently delivered a lecture on Ray and Morison. 



