John Ray, Robert Morison 233 



ciations, better sequences. He strove to rest his distinctions 

 upon knowledge of structure, which he personally investi- 

 gated at every opportunity." He sought for a natural 

 system and made considerable steps towards one. In his 

 classification he relied largely upon the nature of the fruit, 

 but he insisted also upon the importance of vegetative 

 habit. He laid stress upon the structure of the seed, appre- 

 ciated the fact that it not only contained an embryo, but 

 also the substance we now know as endosperm, but which 

 he called " medulla " or " pulpa." He made things much 

 easier for Linnaeus, as did Linnaeus in his turn for 

 naturalists who now smile at his mistakes. Both were 

 capable of proposing haphazard classifications, a fact which 

 need not surprise us when we reflect how much reason we 

 have to suspect that the best arrangements of birds, 

 teleostean fishes, insects and flowering plants known to 

 our own generation need to be largely recast. 



A few words must be said about Robert Morison (1620- 

 1683), a contemporary and to some extent a rival of Ray's, 

 and whose system of classification for a time, but for a time 

 only, outshone Ray's. Morison was an Aberdonian and a 

 Royalist, and having been wounded at the battle of Brigg, 

 he removed to Paris, the asylum of many of his countrymen. 

 Here he took up the study of natural science, and ultimately 

 became the Superintendent of the fine garden of the Duke 

 of Orleans at Blois. On the death of the Duke in 1660, 

 Morison returned to England with Charles II., the Duke's 

 nephew. Charles gave him the title of " King's Physician 

 and Royal Professor of Botany," and made him Superin- 

 tendent of the Royal Gardens. Nine years later he was 

 elected " Botanic Professor " at Oxford, where he remained 

 until his death. 



Ray, who was of humble origin, lived a simple life, and 

 was emphatically an open air naturalist. Morison, who 

 frequented courts and the higher walks of university life, 

 although to a certain extent a field naturalist, more than 

 Ray, relied on the works of his predecessors. After settling 

 at Oxford, he gave his whole energies to the production of 

 his " Historia Plantarum Universalis Oxoniensis." As an 

 example of what he wished the book to be, he published 



