HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
6 5 
. \ 
following expressions: 4t Morison was a vain, self-conceited, but 
44 nevertheless, a meritorious man, since he revived an antiquated 
45 method*. If you compare the genera of Tournefort, you will 
44 easily see what the latter owed to Morison; it was at least an obli- 
44 gation as great as that which Morison owed to Cjesalpinus, even 
44 allowing Tournefort to have been a most scrupulous enquirer. 
44 With all the good things which Morison borrowed of CjEsalpi- 
44 nus, he seems to have differed from him in point of a systematical 
44 knowledge of Nature, whereas C^salpinus paid greater atten- 
44 tion to the distinctive marks of plants t.” 
Ray, 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 direfted 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 Iaudandus, qui viviviscere fecit 
methodum demortuam. Confer Genera Tournefortii, et quid Morisonio debuit facile 
agnoscas; tantum certe ac C-Ssalpino Morisonius, licet fid lis fuit exarainator Tour- 
nefortius, Morisonius omnia sua, qua: bona a C.*salpino habuit, videtur in eo dis- 
cessisse, ut observaret concatenatam affinitateni, naturae magis quam chaiafleres. — Baron 
Haller gives the followiug opinion of his system: “ Metbodus Morisonii penes 
« nu lla ejl. Veras errores vix detexit, nisi quando ad genera veriora stirpes revocavit. Id 
“ vero habet commodi, quod plures stirpes habeat quam Bauhinus." 
-J- See Morison’s Plantarum Histories Universalis, Oxon. 1678, two vols. folio; and Hor- 
tus Regius Blesensis, London, 1669, octavo. 
% Methodus Plantarum emendata, London, 1703 and 1733, in octavo. Synopsis Me- 
lt tbodica 
