SIBTHORP. 



Greece, 37 are enumerated, with their modern names, 25 

 reptiles and 82 birds. All thefe catalogues were greatly aug- 

 mented by fubfequent obfervations, infomuch that the num- 

 ber of I'joecies, coUcfted from an invelligation of all Dr. Sib- 

 thorp's manuCcripts and fpecimens for the materials of the 

 ProJromus Florx Grirc£, amounts to about 3 coo. 



Wc- (hall not particularly trace our traveller's ftcps 

 through Greece, or the various iflands of the Archipelago. 

 His health, which fuffered from the confinement of a fliip, 

 and the heat of the weather, was reltored at Athens, where 

 he arrived on tlw 19th of June, 1787. From thence he 

 profecuted his journies in various direftions, and with 

 various fuccefies. The afcent of mount Delpliis, or Del- 

 phi, ill Negropont, in a florm of wind and rain, on the. 

 3d of Auguit, was one of his moll laborious, if not 

 perilous, adventures ; but his botanical harvcfl was abun- 

 dant. With regard to fcenery, mount Athos, which he 

 vifited a week after, feems to have made molt impref- 

 fion on his mind. This fpot alfo greatly enriched his col- 

 leftion of rare plants. Froin hence he proceeded to ThelTa- 

 lonica, Coriutli, and Patras, at whiih lait place he embarked 

 with Mr. Bauer, on board an Englilli veffel, for Briftol, on 

 the 24th of September. After a tedious and ftormy voyage, 

 they arrived in England the firil week in December. 



The conftitution of Dr. Sibthorp, never very robuft, had 

 fuft'ered materially from the hardiliips and exertions of his 

 journey. But his native air, and the learp.ed leifure of the 

 univerfity, gradually recruited his Itrength. The duties of 

 his profeflbrihip were rather a recreation than a toil. Tlie 

 fuperintendance of his exquifite draughtfman, now engaged 

 in making finifhcd drawings of the Greek animals, as well as 

 plants ; and his occaHonal vifits to the Linnocan and Bank- 

 fnn herbariums, for the removal of his difficulties ; all toge- 

 ther filled up his leifure hours. He was every where wel- 

 comed and admired for his ardour, his talents, and his acqui- 

 fitions. His merits procured an augmentation of his ftipcnd, 

 with the rank of a Regius profellor ; both which advantages 

 were, at the fame time, conferred on his brother profeflor at 

 Cambridge. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1789, and was among the flrll members of the Linnxaii 

 Society, founded in 1788. In the fpring of the year lalt 

 mentioned, the writer of this, with fir Jofeph Banks and 

 Mr. Dryander, paffed a week at Oxford, which was devoted 

 to a critical furvey of the profellor's Grecian acquifitions ; 

 nor was the honey of mount Hymettus, or the wine of Cy- 

 prus, wanting at this truly attic entertainment. But the 

 greater thefe acquifitions, the lefs was their pofleii'or fatisfied 

 with them. No one knew, fo well as himfelf, how much was 

 wanting to the perfeftion of his undertaking, nor could any 

 ether perfon fo well remedy thefe defefts. Though he was 

 placed, a few years after his return, in very affluent circum- 

 ilanceb ; and though his neceffary attention to his landed 

 property, and to agricultural pnrfuits, of which he was paf- 

 fionately fond, miglit wtU have turned liim, in fome meafure, 

 afide from his botanical labours ; he fteadily kept in view the 

 great objeft of his hfe, to which he finally facrificed life 

 itfelf. No name has a fairer claim to botanical immor- 

 tality, among the martyrs of the fcience, than that of 

 Sibthorp. 



On the 20th of Marcli, 1 794, Dr. Sibthorp fet out from 

 London, on his fecond tour to Greece. He travelled to 

 ConflantiBople in the train of Mr. Lifton, ambaliador to the 

 Porte, and was attended by Francis Borone, of whom an 

 account may be feen at the end of the article RutacevE, as 

 4 botanical afliftant. They reached Conftantinople on the 19th 

 of May, not without Dr. Sibthorp's having fuffered much 

 tfom the fatigues of the journey, which liad brought on a 



bilious fever. He foon recovered his health at Condan* 

 tinople, where he was joined by his friend Mr. Hawkins 

 from Crete. Towards the end of Auguft they made an 

 excurfion into Bithynia, and climbed to the fummit of 

 Olympus, from whence they brought a frefli botanical har- 

 veil. Dr. Sibthorp difcovered at Fankran aged Greek bo- 

 taiiift, Dr. Dimitri Argyrami, who had known the Danifh 

 traveller Forllvall, and who was podefled of fome works of 

 Linnius. 



Recovered health, and the accelTion of his friend's com- ' 

 pany, caufed Dr. Sibthorp to fet out with alacrity on his 

 voyage to Greece, on the 9th of September. Palling down 

 the Hellelpont, on the 13th, with a light but favourable 

 breeze, they anchored at Koum Cale, in the Troad, fpent 

 two days in examining the plains of Troy, and then pro- 

 ceeded to the ifles of Tmbros and Lemnos. On the 25th 

 they anchored at mount Athof, and paffed ten days in exa- 

 mining fome of the convents and hermitages, with the ro- 

 mantic fcenery, and botanical rarities, of that fingular fpot, 

 on all which Dr. Sibthorp defcants at length, with great 

 delight, in his journal. Their departure was, for fome time, 

 prevented, by a few Barbary pirates hovering on the coaft, 

 whom thefe monks, unlike the prielts of the Athenian 

 Bacchus, were not potent or valiant enough to defeat, or 

 to turn into dolphins. Our voyagers failed on the 5th of 

 Oftober, and on the 7th landed at Skiatho. From hence, 

 on the I Ith, they proceeded down the ftrait of Negropont, 

 and on the 13th pafled under the bridge of five arches, which 

 conncfts that ifland with the main land of Greece. On the 

 15th, at noon, they entered the harbour of the Pyrxus, and 

 proceeded to Athens, where the four fucceeding weeks were 

 employed in coUefting information relative to the prefent 

 rtate of the government, the manufaftures, and the domef- 

 tic economy of that celebrated fpot. Here Dr. Sibthorp 

 loft his afliftant Borone, who periihed by an accidental 

 fall from a window, in his fleep, on or about the 20th of 

 OiAober. 



November i6th. Dr. Sibthorp and Mr. Hawkins left 

 Athens by the ancient Eleufinian way, while the clafTical 

 ftreams of the Cephifus, the heights of Helicon and Par- 

 naffus lay before them. They proceeded to Patras and to 

 Zante, where they arrived in the middle of December, en- 

 riched with a large colleftion of feeds, the only botanical 

 tribute that could, at this feafon, be collefted from thofe 

 famous mountains. An apothecary at Zante turnifhed 

 Dr. Sibthorp with an ample and fplendid herbarium, of the 

 plants of that ifland, with their modern Greek names ; nor 

 did the winter pafs unprofitably or unpleafantly in this fe- 

 queftered fpot ; where neither agreeable fociety, nor copious 

 information relative to our learned travellers' various objefts, 

 was wanting. The feafon was fufficiently favourable m the 

 middle of February, 1795, to allow them to vifit the Morea, 

 of which peninfula they made the complete circuit in fome- 

 what more than two months. The Violet and Primrofe 

 welcomed them in the plains of Arcadia ; and the Narcijfus 

 Taz'zetta, which Dr. Sibthorp was difpofed to think the 

 true poetic Narcifliis, decorated in profufion the banks of 

 the Alpheu?. The barbarian horde, under whofe efcort they 

 were obliged to travel, had taile enough to colleft nofegays 

 of thefe flowers. The oaks of the Arcadian mountains pre- 

 fented them with the true ancient Mifeltoe, Loranihus euro- 

 ptctis, which Hill ferves to make birdlime ; whilft our Mifekoe, 

 Vifcum album, in Greece grows only on the Silver Fir. May 

 not this circumftance account for the old preference of fuch 

 Mifeltoe as grows on the oak, among the ancient Britons, and 

 confequently help us to trace the origin of their fuperftitioa 

 to Greece ? (See Druids.) The Jay, flill called by its 



ancient 



