388 FLORA OF OXFORDSHIRE. 
and Lincoln College. He obtained the Radcliffe Travelling Fellowship and 
became a member of University College. He took the degree of M.A. in 
1780 and M.B. in 1783. The following details are from a memoir of him 
by his friend Sir J. E. Smith. He was intended for the medical pro- 
fession, and entered at Edinburgh to complete that branch of his education, 
but he took the M.D. at Oxford in 1784. The taste he had early imbibed 
for natural history, especially botany, was cultivated at Edinburgh, whence 
he made a tour into the Scotch Highlands. After his return he visited 
France and Switzerland, staying a considerable time at Montpellier, where 
he made the acquaintance of Broussonet, collected many plants of the 
district and communicated the result of his discoveries to the Académie 
des Sciences of Montpellier. His father succeeding to an estate, necessi- 
tated his return to England in 1783, when on his father’s resignation he 
was appointed to the Sherardian Chair. He himself did not need the 
emolument, having already an ample independence of his own in prospect 
from the estate of his mother, who was his father’s second wife. These 
expectations and his appointment released him from any need to practise 
as a Physician, and his attachment to Botany increased. There was a 
friendly competition between him and Sir James Smith for the possession 
of the Linnzan Museum and Library, which the latter succeeded in 
obtaining, but Oxford only narrowly missed the acquisition of so important 
and valuable a collection. 
Dr. Sibthorp in 1784 passed some time at Gottingen, where he first pro- 
jected his tour to Greece. He first visited the principal seats of learning 
in Germany, and stayed some time at Vienna, where he cultivated the 
friendship of the two professors Jacquin, studied the celebrated MSS. of 
Dioscorides, and procured a most excellent draughtsman, Ferdinand 
Bauer, to accompany him on his expedition. In March 1786 they started 
from Vienna, passed through Carniola to Trieste, Venice, Bologna, Florence, 
Rome, and Naples, sailed from thence in May, touching at Messina, and 
the Isle of Milo, and then proceeded to Crete. Here in June the flowers 
were in great beauty. In returning to Milo, they narrowly escaped ship- 
wreck. They then touched at several islands of the Archipelago, visited 
Athens, and remained for a while at Smyrna. Hence, following the steps 
of Sherard, they proceeded to Bursa, climbed the Bithynian Olympus, and 
at length reached Constantinople, where they spent the ensuing winter. 
In a botanical excursion to Belgrade on Feb. 17, 1787, and another to 
Bujuckderi, March 5, the plants found in flower were almost entirely the 
same as are met with at the same season in England. In March they 
joined company with Captain Emery, and sailed from Constantinople for 
Cyprus, taking the islands of Scio, Mytilene, Cos, and Rhodes, and touching 
at the coast of Asia Minor on their way. A stay of five weeks at Cyprus 
enabled Dr. Sibthorp to draw up w Flora and Fauna of that island. The 
former comprehended 616 species of plants, the latter 18 mammals, 85 
birds, 19 amphibians, and 100 fishes. The particular stations, domestic 
