HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



^5 



following expressions: " Mori son was a vain, self-conceited, but 

 " nevertheless, a meritorious man, since he revived an antiquated 

 " method*. If you compare the genera of Tournefort, you will 

 " easily see what the latter owed to Morison ; it was at least an obli- 

 « gation as great as that which Morison owed to C.tsalpin us, even 



allowing Tournefort to have been a most scrupulous enquirer. 



With all the good things which Morison borrowed of Cesalpi- 

 " Nus, he seems to have differed from him in point of a systematical 

 " knowledge of Nature, whereas Cesalpinus paid greater atten- 

 *' tion to the distinftive marks of plants t." 



Rx\Y, an Englishman, born in the county of Essex 1628, the rival of 

 Morison, was a much superior genius. Divinity was his professional 

 study; but this sacred pursuit did not make his fortune, owing to the 

 spirit of opposition which he manifested in the contentions of the 

 church. He travelled through Germany^ France and Italy, and after- 

 wards dire6led his exclusive application to botany and natural history, 

 in which he wrote more than any other of his countrymen +. He died 



in 



* MORISONUS vanus fuit et inflatus, tamen nunquam non laudandus, qui vivivisceie fecit 

 methodum demortuam. Confer Genera Tournefortii, et quid Morisonio debuit focile 

 agnoscas; tantum certe ac C^salpino Morisonius, licet fidus fuit examinator Tour- 

 NEFORTius. Morisonius ^ a sua, qus bona a C^salpino habuit, videtur in eo dis- 

 cessisse, ut observaret concatenatam aflinitatem, naturae magis quara charaaeres.— Baron 

 Haller gives the followiQg opinion of his system: " Methodus Morisonu fencs 

 «« nulla eft. Veras errores vix detexit, nisi quando ad genera veriora stirpes revocavit. Id 

 *' vero habet commodi, quod plures stirpes habeat quam Bauhinus." 



t See iVloRisoN's Plantarum Hhtoria Uninjersalis, Oxon. 1678, two vols, folio; and Hor- 

 ius Regius Blesensis, London, 1669, oitavo. 



{ Methodus Plantarum emendaia, London, 1703 and 1733, in oaavo. Synopsis Me- 



^ thtdica 



