INTRODUCTION 5 



Morison seems to have been interested in the problem of varie- 

 gated plants, for a " greater Maple, miscalled the Sycamore, 

 was found striped white in Magdalen College Grove and 

 translated thence into the Physick-garden," where there was 

 also a " white-striped Dulcamara from the stock at the Duke 

 of Orleans his house at Blois which Professor Morison ex- 

 plained as the result of the artificial substraction of nourish- 

 ment brought about by the lime and building rubbish in 

 which the parent plant grew." * 



During the period that the Professorship was held by 

 Morison, Jacob Bobart the elder, a native of Brunswick, was 

 Horti praefectus, gardener or supervisor.t He had been ap- 

 pointed to the post at the age of thirty-three, in 1632, and in 



* Plot's " Oxfordshire." 

 f We have several portraits of him : 



J. Size 8| in x 5| in., D. Loggan, del., M. Burghers, sculp. Sold by 

 M. Burghers, in 1709. Beneath the head, dated 1675, ^ s inscribed : 



Thou Germane Prince of plants, each yeare to thee 



Thousands of subjects grant a subsidie. 



A reprint by Wm. Richardson appeared July I, 1800. 



2. Size 6| in. x 4 in. A full-length portrait of Bobart standing near 

 the Danby gateway holding a flower and the staff of Aesculapius, and 

 accompanied by a goat, a dog, and a stork flying. Clipped plants are 

 seen in the background. Engraved by Burghers. 



3. Small whole-length portrait in the frontispiece to " Vertumnus," 8vo, 

 Oxford, 1713. In this he is dressed in a long vest, and is holding a plant 

 in his hand. 



In all we see the long beard which on occasion reached to the waist, 

 and which, on " rejoicing days," he used to have tagged with silver 

 (Granger's " Biog. Hist. Eng."). It is, moreover, related that on his walks 

 abroad he was attended by a goat instead of a dog. 



Ray, in a letter to Aubrey, noted his diligence in observing and in 

 making a collection of insects. And names said to be in his handwriting 

 are written on 227 folio drawings of plants in the British Museum. 



He was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's-in-the-East, and against 

 the south wall is a small tablet : 



To the Pious memory of Jacob Bobart, a native German. A man of great 

 integrity, chosen by the founder to be keeper of the Physic Garden. He dyed 

 Feb. 4, 1679, in the 8ist year of his age. 



