20 INTRODUCTION 



1 6. And besides these Natural Curiosities, here are several 

 instances of Nature improved by Art, as Trees cut into 

 curious shapes. 17. To which we may add the curious piece 

 of Rustic Rock-work over the Gate on each side of which are 

 the Statues of King Charles I. and II. and over all the Earl 

 of Danby's Statue in Busto, the founder of this Garden. 

 1 8. Another curiosity are the Sphinges Megaricae, on each 

 side of the Iron Gate that leads into the Court before the 

 Garden, which Sphinxes are Hieroglyphics (says the learned 

 Montfaucon) and Emblems of Wisdom."* 



Dillenius was of a retired disposition, and recluse habits. 

 His corpulency, combined with his close application to study, 

 probably brought on an attack of apoplexy, which terminated 

 his existence in the sixtieth year of his age. 



Of his successor, Dr. Humphrey Sibthorp, of Magdalen 

 College, little notice is preserved; he gave "one not very 

 successful lecture . . . and every scientific object slept during 

 the 40 years he held the post."t The genus Sibthorpia (Linn.) 

 was dedicated to him and not to his son. The latter, John 

 Sibthorp, M.D. of Lincoln College, appointed to the chair 

 in 1784, will be ever memorable in the annals of botany 

 for his zeal in the pursuit of science, no less than for his 

 munificent designs to promote its advancement. The former 

 feeling led him to undertake two journeys into Greece and the 

 Archipelago, the first when Travelling Fellow, in 1784,$ the 

 second, when Professor of Botany, in i794. On his death, 



* John Pointer's " Oxoniensis Academia," 1749. 



f Sir James Smith, quoted from Druce's " Flora of Oxfordshire." 



% It was perhaps during Sibthorp's absence that one of the first balloon 

 ascents in England was made from the Physic Garden. On Nov. 12, 

 1784, Mr. Sadler went up, watched by "a surprising concourse of people 

 of all ranks ; the roads, streets, fields, trees, buildings, and towers of the 

 parts adjacent being crowded beyond description." 



In the first of these journeys he engaged at Vienna, as draughtsman, 

 the celebrated Ferdinand Bauer, with whom he visited Constantinople, 

 Crete, Cyprus, and other islands of the Grecian Archipelago. He also 



