M O R 
810 
were ufed to reconcile thefe Morifcoes to Chriftianity, 
they and their pofterity ftill continued as much Maho¬ 
metans in their hearts as ever they had been. This was 
alfo the cafe with regard to the Morifcoes of the king¬ 
doms of Valencia and Arragon, who continued profefTed 
Mahometans for 300 years after they were conquered by 
the Chriftians ; and who. having been all baptized by 
force, remained Mahometans in their hearts till they were 
all expelled Spain. The Spanifh hiftorians are not agreed 
as to the number of the Morifcoes that were driven from 
Spain in the year 1610. Some fry they were a million, 
others that they were 900,000; but the greater number 
of writers concur in aflerting, that they were 600,000 
men, women, and children, beiides thofe that were flain 
or detained. Thefe Morifcoes were induftrious and peace¬ 
able inhabitants of Spain, and conftiluted the ftrength of 
the kingdom by their application to agriculture, manu¬ 
factures, and trade. The expullion of them was fuch a 
fatal blow to Spain, that fire has not to this day, nor in¬ 
deed is ever likely to recover it. Soon after this difaftrous 
event, Spain began to feel its bad efFeds, as we may infer 
from a memorial delivered in 1618, to Philip III. by a 
junta that had been aflembled by the king, to confider 
what remedy might be applied to the ruined Hate of his 
kingdom. The duke of Lerma, tire chief author of the 
depopulating expulfions, was turned from court and de¬ 
prived of all his offices ; his chief confidant and counfel- 
lor, Rodrigo Calderon, was committed to prifon, and, 
after imprifonment for two years and a half, put publicly 
to death in the great fquare of Madrid; and the archbi- 
ffiop of Toledo, who had been alfo a zealous promoter of 
the expulfions, died a few days after his brother the duke 
was difmiffed from court, merely of grief and vexation. 
King Philip, who died foon after, is faid by a famous 
Spaniffi hiftorian to have had his confcience upon his 
death-bed overwhelmed with horrors, which has been 
attributed to bis concern in thefe expulfions, by means 
of which, in violation of all the laws of religion and hu¬ 
manity, he had plunged more than 100,000 families in 
diftrefs and mifery; a reflection that mult have been ago¬ 
nizing to a perfon fummoned by death to anfwer for his 
conduCt before the divine tribunal, where, as an excel¬ 
lent writer exprefles himfelf in immediate reference to 
this fubjeCt, “ they are to have judgment without mercy, 
who have fhowed no mercy to their fellow-creatures.” 
See Geddes's Trails, vol. i. 
MOR'ISON (Robert), an eminent botanift, was born 
at Aberdeen, in 1620. He was educated in the univerfity 
of that place, firft with a view to the ecclefialtical profef- 
fion; but his inclination to phyfic and botany prevented 
that deftination from taking effed. When the civil war 
broke out, his attachment to the royal caufe led him to 
take arms on that fide; and he received a dangerous 
wound at the battle of Brigg, near Aberdeen.. On his 
recovery he retired to France, and at Paris was engaged 
as preceptor to the fon of a counfellor, which did not 
prevent him from applying affiduoufly to the ftudy of 
anatomy, botany, and zoology. In 1648 he took the de¬ 
gree of M. D. at Angers. His botanical reputation caufed 
him to be appointed fuperintendant of the duke of Or¬ 
leans’s garden at Blois, in 1450, which poll; he held till 
the death of the duke in 1660. During that period he 
travelled by his patron’s orders into feveral provinces of 
France, inveftigating the vegetable productions, and ma¬ 
king collections for the garden of new and rare plants. 
Having become known in this fituation to Charles II. he 
was invited by him to England on the duke’s death, and 
on his arrival received the title of king’s phylician and 
royal profefior of botany, with a falary of 200I. per ann. 
and a houfe. He was alfo eleCted a fellow of the college 
of phyficians. This fituation he exchanged in 1669 for 
that of botanic profeflor at Oxford, where he commenced 
a courfe of leCtures in 1670, which were well attended, 
and were continued by him till his death. The accident 
of being hurt by the pole of a coach, as he was croffing a 
M O R 
ftreet in London, was fuppofed to be the caufe of a dis¬ 
order which proved fatal to him in 1683, at the ago of 
fixty-three. 
The firft publication of Morifon was a fecond edition 
of Bruyner’s catalogue of the plants in the garden of the 
duke of Orleans, under the title of “ Plortus Regius Ble- 
fenfis auClus: acceffit Index Plantarum in Horto conten- 
tarum nemiiii Icriptarum, et Obfervationes generaliores, 
feu Preludiorutn, Pars Prior;” Lond. 1669, 121110. This 
work contained the rudiments of that new method of 
claffification which has placed Morifon among the im¬ 
provers of botanical fcience : it alfo exhibited feveral 
plants hitherto unknown. There were alfo annexed foine 
remarks on miftakes made by the two Bauhins, drawn 
up with unbecoming feverity. A Dialogue concerning 
Claffification is added, in which the author contends, that 
the genera of plants fliould be eftablifhed on charaders 
drawn from the fruit, and learnedly defends the dodrine 
that all vegetables arife from feed. Having received from 
Mr. Charles Hatton, fon of lord Hatton, a treatife with 
engraved plates, by Paul Boccone, relative to plants dis¬ 
covered by him in the fouth of Europe, Morifon caufed 
the plates to be re-engraved, and publifhed them at Ox¬ 
ford in 1674, with the title of “ leones et Defcriptiones 
rariorum Plantarum Melitse Gallic et Italias, audore 
Paulo Boccone,” 4to. In a dedication to Mr. Hatton, 
he not only maintains that all plants fpring from feed, 
but that the fern tribe is furniffied with flowers and feed. 
He was at this time engaged in his great work of a gene¬ 
ral hiftory of plants, of which he publifhed as a fpecimen 
“ Plantarum Umbelliferarum Diftributio nova,” Oxon. 
1672, folio ; an ingenious attempt to claflify the tribe of 
plants in queftion, which drew the attention of the lovers 
of botany, and augmented the patronage conferred on 
the author. At length appeared the firft volume of his 
work intitled “Plantarum Hiftorias Univerfalis Oxonien- 
fis, Pars Secunda; feu Herbarum Diftributio nova, per 
'Tabulas Cognationis et Affinitatis, ex Libro Natural ob- 
fervata et deteda,” 1680, folio. This was called a fecond 
part, becaufe the hiftory of trees and fhrubs was intended 
for the firft part, but never appeared. Morilon’s fyftem, 
though far from being exad or perfed, (fee the article 
Botany, vol. iii. p. 290.) contributed to the advancement 
of botanical fcience; and his numerous delineations of 
plants, feveral of which had not before been figured, made 
an ufeful addition to the means of becoming acquainted 
with the vegetable creation. In this volume only the 
five firft claffes were given. The author left four more 
finiflied, which, with the remaining claffes, were pub- 
lifiied by Jacob Bobart, in 1699. Pulteney's Sketches of 
Botany. 
MOR'ISON’s HA'VEN, a feaport of Scotland, on the 
fouth coaft of the Frith of Forth, with a cuftom-houfe; 
to which Muffelburgh, North Berwick, and fome other 
^orts, are creeks. The principal article of trade is fait j 
for the preparing of which there are many pans in the 
neighbourhood. It is one mile from Prefton Pans. 
MORISO'NIAjjl [named byPlumierin honour of the 
fubjed of the laft article but one.] In botany, a genus of 
the clafs monadelphia, order polyandria, natural order of 
putamineas, (capparides, Juff.) Generic charaders—Ca¬ 
lyx : perianthium one-leafed, ventricofe, burfting, bifid, 
fpreading at the mouth, blunt, fhrivelling. Corolla: pe¬ 
tals four, blunt, fomewhat oblong. Stamina: filaments 
numerous, awl-fhaped, fhorter than the corolla, connate 
into a funnel at the bale ; antherse oblong, ered. Piftil- 
lum : germ pedicelled, ovate ; ftyle none; ftigma headed, 
plano-convex, umbilicate with a dot. Pericarpium : berry 
globular, with a hard fmooth rind, one-celled, pedicelled. 
Seeds : feveral, kidney-form, neftling.— EJfential Character. 
Calyx fingle, bifid; petals four; piftillum one; berry with 
a hard rind, one-celled, many-feeded, pedicelled. 
Morifonia Americana, a fingle fpecies. It is an elegant 
upright tree, feldom above fifteen feet in height. Leayes 
oblong, blunt, or acuminate, quite entire, fhining, co¬ 
riaceous/ 
