Robert Morison - Legacy

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. 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 installment of the Historia in 1699 dealing with the remaining ten sections of herbaceous plants.
  • Around 1737, in a letter to Swiss naturalist Albrecht von Haller, Carl Linnaeus wrote:
“ Morison was vain, yet he cannot be sufficiently praised for having revived system which was half expiring. If you look through 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. ”


The standard author abbreviation Morison may be used to indicate this person in citing a botanical name. As names of plants published before 1 May 1753 have no official status the abbreviation of this pre-Linnaean botanist will seldom be used.

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