180 
SIBTHORP. 
station of Mexico, in the province of Cinaloa, situated on by one of the country vessels, Dr. Sibthorp and Mr. Bauer 
the shore of the river Fuerte. The mines have ceased to be touched successively at several islands of the Archipelago, 
worked. visited Athens, and remained for a while at Smyrna. Dr. 
SIBNIBAS, a town of Bengal, district of Nuddea. Sibthorp’s residence at Constantinople, or in the neighbour- 
During the rainy season there is a short passage for boats ing isle of Karki, proved favourable to his investigations of 
from the north east parts of Bengal to Calcutta, but which the fishes and birds of those regions, by which he was enabled 
is dry in the hot weather. It is possible that a canal might to throw much light on the writings of ancient naturalists, 
be cut from the Ganges to the Hoogly river by this route. A stay of five weeks at Cyprus enabled Dr. Sibtborp to 
Lat. 23. 25. N. long. 88. 49. E. draw up a Fauna and Flora of that island. The former con- 
SIBOCKOO, a town on the east coast of the island of sists of 18 Mammalia, 85 Birds, 19 Amphibia, and 100 
Borneo. Lat. 4. 24. N. long. 117. 12. E. 
S1BOURE, a small town in the south-west of France, 
department of the Lower Pyrenees, on the Nivelle, opposite 
to St. Jean de Luz. Population 1900. 
SIBSEY, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire 5 6 miles 
north-north-east of Boston. Population 1151. 
SIBSEY ISLAND, a small island on the south coast of 
New Holland, in Spencer’s gulf. 
SIBSIB, in Zoology, an animal of the empire of Morocco, 
abounding in the mountains of the province of Suse ; of an 
intermediate species between the cat and the squirrel; some¬ 
what similar to the ichneumon in form, but smaller. 
SIBSON, a hamlet of England, in Huntingdonshire, 
situated on the river Nev ; 7| miles north-west of Stilton. 
SIBSON, or Sibbeston, a parish of England, in Leices¬ 
tershire; 4 miles west-south-west of Market Bosworth. 
SIBTHORP (John), an eminent botanist and traveller, 
was the youngest son of Dr- Humphrey Sibthorp, professor 
of botany at Oxford, where the subject of the present article 
was born, October 28, 1758. He received the first rudi¬ 
ments of his education at Magdalen school, from whence he 
was removed to the school at Lincoln. In due time he 
entered at Lincoln college, Oxford; but upon obtaining 
the Radcliffe travelling fellowship, he became a member 
of University college. Being intended for the medical 
profession, he was sent to Edinburgh to complete that 
branch of his education; but he took the degree of doctor 
of physic in his own university. The taste he had early 
imbibed for natural history, especially botany, was culti¬ 
vated at Edinburgh, and indulged in a tour to the Highlands 
of Scotland. After his return from thence, he visited France 
and Switzerland, spending a considerable time at Montpel¬ 
lier, where he formed an intimacy with the amiable Brous- 
sonet, collected many plants of that country, and communi¬ 
cated to the Academie des Sciences of Montpellier, of which 
he became a member, an account of his numerous botanical 
discoveries in the neighbourhood. The death of an elder 
brother of his father, by which a considerable estate de¬ 
volved on the latter, occasioned Dr. J. Sibthorp to return 
to England in 1783, when, on his father’s resignation, he 
was appointed to the botanical professorship. 
Dr. Sibthorp passed a portion of the year 1784, at Got¬ 
tingen, where he projected his first tour to Greece; the bo- 
tanical investigation of which celebrated country, and espe¬ 
cially the determination of the plants mentioned by its clas¬ 
sical authors, had, for some time past, become the leading 
object of his pursuits. He first visited the principal seats of 
learning in Germany, and surveyed some of its mountains 
and forests; but it was impossible to quit this part of the 
world without a considerable stay at Vienna. There he 
cultivated the friendship of the two professors Jacquin, father 
and son ; he studied with peculiar care the celebrated manu¬ 
script of Dioscorides, which has so long been preserved in 
the imperial library; and procured a most excellent draughts¬ 
man, Mr. Ferdinand Bauer, to be the companion of his ex¬ 
pedition. On the 6th of March, 1786, they set out toge¬ 
ther from Vienna, and passed through Carniola to Trieste, 
Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, examining 
every tiling that was curious, and keeping an exact record 
of their botanical observations. After viewing the cele¬ 
brated environs of Naples, they sailed from thence early in 
May, and touching at Messina, as well as at the Isle of Milo, 
they proceeded to Crete. 
Having narrowly escaped shipwreok, in returning to Milo, 
Fishes; the latter comprehends 616 species of plants. The 
particular stations, domestic and medical uses, and reputed 
qualities of these last, are amply recorded; and the verna¬ 
cular names of the animals, as well as of the economical 
plants, are subjoined. The same method is pursued, in a 
subsequent part of this journal, respecting the plants and 
animals of Greece, with every thing that could be collected 
relative to the medicine, agriculture and domestic economy 
of that country and the circumjacent isles. The illustration 
of the writings of Dioscorides, in particular, was Dr. Sib¬ 
thorp’s chief object. The names and reputed virtues of 
several plants, recorded by that ancient writer, and still tra¬ 
ditionally retained by the Athenian shepherds, served occa¬ 
sionally to elucidate, or to to confirm their synonymy. The 
first sketch of the Flora Graica comprises about 850 plants. 
“ This,” says the author, “ may be considered as contain¬ 
ing only the plants observed by me in the environs of 
Athens, on the snowy heights of the Grecian Alp Parnassus, 
on the steep precipices of Delphis, the empurpled mountain 
of Hymettus, the Pentele, the lower hills about the Piraeus, 
the olive grounds about Athens, and the fertile plains of 
Baeotia. The future botanist, who shall examine this coun¬ 
try with more leisure, and at a more favourable season of the 
year, before the summer sun has schorched up the spring 
plants, may make a considerable addition to this list. My 
intention was to have travelled by land through Greece •. but 
the disturbed state of this country, the eve of a Russian war, 
the rebellion of its bashaws, and the plague at Larissa, ren¬ 
dered my project impracticable.” Of the Mammalia of 
Greece, 37 are enumerated, with their modern names, 25 
reptiles and 82 birds. All these catalogues were greatly aug¬ 
mented by subsequent observations, insomuch that the num¬ 
ber of species collected from an investigation of all Dr. Sib¬ 
thorp’s manuscripts, and specimens for the materials of the 
Prodromus Flora ; Grcccte, amounts to about 3000. 
The constitution of Dr. Sibthorp, never very robust, bad 
suffered materially from the hardships and exertions of his 
journey. But his native air, and the learned leisure of the 
university, gradually recruited his strength. His merits pro¬ 
cured an augmentation of his stipend, with a rank of. a 
Regius professor; both which advantages were, at the same 
time, conferred on his brother professor at Cambridge. He 
became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1789, and was 
among the first members of the Linnaean Society, founded 
in 1788. 
On the 20th of March, 1794, Dr. Sibthorp set out from 
London, on his second tour to Greece. He reached Con¬ 
stantinople on the 19th of May, not without having suffered 
much from the fatigues of the journey, which had brought 
on a bilious fever. He soon recovered his health at Con¬ 
stantinople, where he was joined by his friend Mr. Hawkins 
from Crete. 
He died at Bath, February 8th, 1796, in the thirty-eighth 
year of his age, and lies interred in the abbey church, 
where his executors have erected a neat monument to his 
memory. 
By his will, dated Ashburton, January 12, 1796, he gives 
a freehold estate in Oxfordshire to the university of Oxford, 
for the purpose of first publishing his Flora Grcoca, in 10 
folio volumes, with 100 coloured plates in each, and a 
Prodromus of the same work, in 8vo., without plates. 
The only work which professor John Sibthorp published 
in his life-time is a Flora Oxoniensis in one volume 8vo., 
printed in 1794. It has the merit of being entirely founded 
on 
