Biography

Pre-Linnaean botanist from Scotland. Robert Morison introduced Britain to the systematic study of botany at the same time as John Ray. Morison published floristic lists arranged by shared characteristics, concentrating on the form of fruiting bodies. Originally from Aberdeen, Morison graduated with a Master of Arts degree aged just 18. Continuing to study natural history he was interrupted by the Civil War. As a royalist he fought in the battle of the Brig of Dee (1644) in which he was severely wounded. Soon after this he fled to France where he continued to work towards his doctorate at the University of Angers. Named a doctor of medicine in 1648 Morison moved to Paris where he pursued his interest in botany with the help of Vespacian Robin, botanist to the King of France. Clearly a talented pupil, Robin recommended him for head of the Duke of Orleans' royal garden at Blois. He took on the role in 1650 and remained there for ten years.

King Charles II was the nephew of the Duke of Orleans and Morison was introduced to him in 1660. After returning to England at the Restoration, the King requested Morison join him back in London in order to serve as his personal physician and botanist. Morison obliged and in return received an impressive salary. In this position for a further nine years he worked upon his first botanical work, the Praeludia Botanica, which was published in 1669. This same year Oxford University were looking to elect a professor of botany for the first time. Naturally Morison was a prime candidate and he started immediately. In this role, other than regular lectures given in the equally newly created physic garden, he concentrated on the production of his greatest work. The Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis was seminal in that, alongside John Ray's Catalogus plantarum Angliae (1670), it introduced to Britain a more systematic approach to the study of plants. It was decided that a small section of the work, a monograph of the Umbelliferae (Apiaceae), should be published first, in order to promote the final three volume publication. This Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova was published in 1672 and was the earliest systematic monograph written for a specific group of plants in Western botanical history. In it he described his method of classification which was based on fruit morphology. In the end, however, only the second part was published in Morison's lifetime (1680) and the rest was edited and published by Jacob Bobart (junior), keeper of the Oxford Physic Garden. In the third volume Bobart was not afraid to make changes to Morison's work and this was apparently for the better.

One change which Bobart made was to remove the Halluciaciones sections. These parts of the text belay Morison's arrogant character as they attack many of his forerunners and their attempts to classify plant diversity. Claiming that his only inspiration was the 'book of nature' Morison must have drawn from the works of the Bauhin brothers (Gaspard and Jean) and Andrea Cesalpino to some extent, but he was unwilling to acknowledge anyone else's work in his own. Morison was particularly keen to mar the name of his contemporary, John Ray, whom he offended on several occasions. It is, however, Ray that is remembered as the 'father of English natural history' not Morison; perhaps because of the latter's refusal to share his recognition with others in his field. Morison's herbarium specimens were incorporated into Bobart's Hortus Siccus at OXF.

Sources:
A. Hancock, 2006, "Robert Morison, the first professor of botany at Oxford", Oxford Plant Systematics, 13: 14-15
W. Junk, 1926, Portraits of old Botanists
S.H. Vines, 1913, "Robert Morison (1620-1683) and John Ray (1627-1705), Makers of British Botany: 8-44.