22 ROBERT MORISON AND JOHN RAY 



" giiod nullum semen molitur" {De Plantis, p. 591): but he had 

 added, in the same paragraph, '' fertint enim i7i folio quid, qjwd 

 vicem seminis gerit, ut Filix et quae illi affinia S7intr It is a 

 question if Morison was much nearer the truth than Cesalpino. 



It is in the preface of his Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distri- 

 butio Nova (1672) that Morison first gave a definite statement 

 of the principles of his method, in the following terms : " Cum- 

 que metJiodus sit omnis doctrinae aniina : idcirco nos tain in hac 

 umbelliferarum dispositione^ quam in universali omnium stirpium 

 digestione, quam pollicenmr, notas genericas et essentiales a semirii- 

 bus eorumque similitudine petitas, per tabtdas cognationis et affini- 

 tatis disponentes stirpes exhibebimus. Differentias autem specificas 

 a partibus ignobilioribus, scilicet radice, foliis et caidibus, odore, 

 sapore, colore desumptas adscribemus, singulis generibus singulas 

 accersendo species: ita species diversa facie cognoscibiles, sub 

 generibus intermediis : genera intermedia sub supremis, notis suis 

 essentialibus et semper eodem modo sese habentibus distincta mili- 

 tabunt. Hie est ordo a natura ipsa stirpibus ab initio datus, a me 

 primo jam observatus." 



It is not necessary to discuss in detail the merits of Morison's 

 work on the Umbelliferae. It will suffice to say that it was 

 published as a specimen of the great Historia that he had in 

 preparation trigesimam operis quod inteiidimus partem so that 

 the learned world might have some idea of what they were to 

 expect from the completed work " quemadmodum aiiint ex ungue 

 leonem " ; and further, that it was the first monograph of a 

 definite group of plants, and is remarkable for the sense of 

 relationship between the genera that inspires it. The Umbelli- 

 ferae constituted Sectio IX among the fifteen sections in which 

 Morison distributed herbaceous plants. 



At length, in 1680, appeared the Pars Secunda of the Plan- 

 tarum Historia Universalis Oxoniensis in which work Morison's 

 long-expected method of classification was to be exhibited and 

 justified. However in this respect it proved to be disappointing: 

 partly because it was so limited in its scope, dealing with but 

 five of his fifteen Sectiones of herbaceous plants : and partly 

 because it did not contain any complete outline of his system. 

 It is most singular that, although he wrote so much, Morison 



