An Account of the Morisonian Herbarium in the Possession of the University of Oxford Together With Biographical and Critical Sketches of Morison, and ... the Physic Garden 1619-1720 (Classic Reprint)

The description of the botanical collections of the University of Oxford, which was begun with the volume on the herbaria of Dillenius published in 1907, is here continued with an account of the still more ancient herbarium of Morison, who was the first Professor of Botany in the University (1669-83), and of Jacob Bobart the younger. It would be altogether incomplete without some notice of the distinguished men who formed it; or without some reference to the early history of the Garden with which the herbarium is intimately associated. The Physic Garden. The first suggestion of the formation of such a garden is the following entry in Anthony Wood s History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (ed. Gutch, 1796), vol. ii. A nnals, p. 335: ID om. 1620. (18 Jacobi. Saville s Benefaction being in a manner setled, motions were made for the founding of a Natural Philosophy Lecture, as also a Garden for Physical Simples. Which being kindly embraced by the University, care was taken for their settlement soon after, as it shall be elsewhere showed. Indefinite though this statement is, effective means must have been taken to realize the suggestion as regards the Garden, for in the following year a founder was forthcoming in the person of Henry Lord Danvers, who in his youth had been at Christ Church, and had subsequently served with distinction in both the army and the navy. Probably the idea commended itself to him because he had seen academic Physic Gardens in the course of his travels abroad; and he put it into execution when he was residing at Cornbury Park as Ranger of the Royal Forest of Wychwood. He secured a plot of land, about five acres in extent, which formed part of what was known in early times as Paris Meade
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