View source for Robert Morison

{{short description|British botanist (1620–1683)}}
{{distinguish|Robert Morrison (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Robert Morison
| image             = Robert Morison.png
| image_size        = 250px
| caption           =
| birth_date        = 1620
| birth_place       = [[Aberdeen]], Scotland
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1683|11|10|1620|1|1}}
| death_place       = [[London]], England
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = Scottish
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = {{Unbulleted list|[[Botany]]|[[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]]}}
| work_institutions = [[Oxford University]]
| alma_mater        = {{Unbulleted list|[[Aberdeen University]]|[[University of Angers]], France}}
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = 
| author_abbrev_bot = Morison
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| prizes            = 
| religion          = 
| footnotes         = 
| signature         =  
}}

'''Robert Morison''' (1620{{snd}}10 November 1683) was a Scottish [[botanist]] and [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomist]]. A forerunner of [[John Ray]], he elucidated and developed the first systematic [[classification of plants]].<ref name=MBB>Vines</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [[Aberdeen]], Morison was an outstanding scholar who gained his [[Master of Arts]] degree from the [[University of Aberdeen]] at the age of eighteen. During the [[English Civil War]] he joined the [[Charles I of England]]'s [[Cavalier]]s and was seriously wounded at the 1639 Battle of the [[Bridge of Dee]] during the Civil War.<ref name=EScotland>{{Cite web|url=http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/morison_robert.htm|title=Significant Scots – Robert Morison|accessdate=22 February 2011}}</ref> On recovering, he fled to France when it became apparent that the cause was lost.
[[File:Morison_umbellifera_tree.jpg|thumb|left|A diagram from Morison's 1672 book on Umbelliferae illustrating genus affinities]]
In 1648, he took a doctorate in medicine at the [[University of Angers]] in Western France and from then on devoted himself entirely to the study of botany. He studied in Paris under the guidance of [[Vespasien Robin]], botanist to the king of France, who introduced him to [[Gaston, Duke of Orléans]]. On Robin's recommendation, Morison became director of the Royal Gardens at [[Blois]], Central France, a post which he subsequently held for ten years.<ref name=MBB/>

In 1660, despite inducements to make him stay in France, Morison returned to England following the [[Restoration (1660)|Restoration]] and became physician to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] as well as his botanist and superintendent of all the royal gardens with a salary of £200 per annum, and a free house.<ref name=MBB/><ref name=EScotland/>

Earlier in 1621, [[Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby]] had given [[Oxford University]] 250 pounds for the purchase of land for a "Physic Garden". At the same time, the earl bequeathed "certain revenues" to fund a chair in botany at the university; in 1669 Morison became the first professor of botany, a post that he held until 1683.<ref>Vines, p. 16</ref>

In the year that he began teaching at Oxford, Morison published ''Praeludia Botanica'', a work which stressed using the structure of a plant's fruits for classification. At the time, classification focused on the habitat and medicinal properties of the plant and Morison's criticism of systems promoted by botanists such as [[Gaspard Bauhin|Jean and Gaspard Bauhin]] caused some anger among his contemporaries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thinkfinity.org/2010-11-10_botanist-robert-morison|title=Botanist Robert Morison|date=10 November 2010|accessdate=21 February 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20110724093632/http://www.thinkfinity.org/2010-11-10_botanist-robert-morison|archivedate=24 July 2011}}</ref>

In 1669, he also published 'Hortus Regius Blesensis' by the newly revived University Press, it was a catalogue of the Blois garden to which Morison added the description of 260 previously un-described plants, although [[Richard Pulteney]] (''A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus'', 1781) disagreed and noted that they were only varieties and others were already described.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Morison {{!}} Botany |url=https://botany.edwardworthlibrary.ie/robert-morison/ |website=botany.edwardworthlibrary.ie |access-date=30 April 2021}}</ref>

In the preface to his ''Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova'' (1672), Morison gave a definitive statement of the principles of his method and was the first person to write a "monograph of a specific group of plants", the [[Umbelliferae]].<ref>Vines, pp. 15–16</ref>

Morison was fatally injured by the pole of a carriage as he was crossing the street on 9 November 1683 and died the following day at his house in Green Street, Leicester-fields. He was buried in the church of [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]], Westminster.<ref name=MBB/>

==Works==
[[File:Morison, Robert – Historia plantarum universalis oxoniensis, 1715 – BEIC 11853007.jpg|thumb|''Historia plantarum universalis oxoniensis'', 1715]]
* {{google books|S1pOAAAAcAAJ|Praeludia Botanica|page=PP7}} (1669) An [[octavo]] volume made up of:
** pp.&nbsp;1–347: ''Hortus Regius Blesensis Auctus'' (a new edition of Abel Brunier's ''Hortus Regius Blesensis'' with Morison's contributions).
** pp.&nbsp;351–459: ''Hallucinationes Caspari Bauhini in Pinace, item Animadversiones in tres Tomos Universalis Historiae Johannis Bauhini''.
** pp.&nbsp;463–499: ''Dialogus inter Socium Collegii Regii Gresham dicti et Botanographum Regium''.
* ''Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova, per Tabulas Cognationis et Affinitatis, ex Libra Naturae observata et detecta'' (1672).
* ''Historia Plantarum Universalis Oxoniensis'' (Vol. 1, 1680)
* {{Cite book|title=Historia plantarum universalis oxoniensis|volume=1|publisher=Theatrum Sheldonianum|location=Oxford|year=1715|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11853007}}
* {{Cite book|title=Historia plantarum universalis oxoniensis|volume=2|publisher=Theatrum Sheldonianum|location=Oxford|year=1715|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11854474}}

==Legacy==
* At the time of his death, Morison's [[opus magnum]] the ''Historia Plantarum Universalis Oxoniensis'' remained unfinished, with only one volume published in 1680 detailing fifteen classes of his classification system. He had collaborated on this volume with [[Charles Hatton]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mandelbrote |first1=Scott |title=The Publication and Illustration of Robert Morison's ''Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis'' |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |date=2015 |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=349–379 |doi=10.1525/hlq.2015.78.2.349}}</ref> It was entrusted by Oxford University to [[Jacob Bobart the Younger]], who on the death of his father [[Jacob Bobart the Elder]] published a second and final instalment of the ''Historia'' in 1699 dealing with the remaining ten sections of herbaceous plants.<ref name=MBB/>
* Around 1737, in a letter to Swiss naturalist [[Albrecht von Haller]], [[Carl Linnaeus]] wrote: 
{{Cquote|Morison was vain, yet he cannot be sufficiently praised for having revived [a]<ref>The word is missing from the source.</ref> system which was half expiring. If you look through [[Joseph Pitton de Tournefort|Tournefort's]] genera you will readily admit how much he owes to Morison, full as much as the latter was indebted to [[Cesalpino]], though Tournefort himself was a conscientious investigator. All that is good in Morison is taken from Cesalpino, from whose guidance he wanders in pursuit of natural affinities rather than of characters.<ref>Vines, p. 28</ref>}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Wikisource|works=both}}
{{wikispecies}}
*{{Cite wikisource |last=Vines |first=Sydney Howard |author-link=Sydney Howard Vines |editor-last=Oliver |editor-first=Francis Wall |editor-link=Francis Wall Oliver |chapter=Robert Morison 1620—1683 and John Ray 1627—1705 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |via=[[Wikisource]] |year=1913 |wslink=Makers of British botany}}
*{{Cite book|last=Morison|first=Robert|url=http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=3046|title=Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio nova|year=1672}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morison, Robert}}
[[Category:1620 births]]
[[Category:1683 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Scottish botanists]]
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:Scottish taxonomists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Cavaliers]]
[[Category:University of Angers (pre-1793) alumni]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Oxford]]