Comparing fruits: genera and species

The twelve copperplate engravings, associated with Morison’s Plantarum umbelliferarum distributio nova (1672), serve to illustrate the features of the genera and species. Plates 2-10 illustrate members of the modern family Apiaceae described in the work, whilst plates 10-12 illustrate species that Morison excluded from his concept of the Umbellae.

This plate shows the fruits (left side) and parts of the leaves (right side) of three different umbellifers. In 1789, the Italian botanist Carlo Allioni (1725-1804) used the image and description of ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso levi’ to describe as new species, Cachrys morisoni, in honour of Morison. Today, this name is a synonym of Prangos trifida, a southern European umbellifer. The two other umbellifers ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso Sulcato aspero’ (Cachrys sicula) and ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso Sulcato plano’ (Cachrys libanotis) are both western and central Mediterranean species. In each of these cases individual fruits are arranged as they would appear on the plant, rather than as separate objects, as on the comparative plate.

The clarity, quality and originality of the plates in the Plantarum umbelliferarum would not be repeated when Parts 2 and 3 of the Historia were published, except perhaps with some of Michael Burghers’ (c.1647-1727) plates of grasses. For example, compare the fruits and leaf of ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso Sulcato aspero’ in the Plantarum umbelliferarum with the top row (illustrations 1 and 2; note that illustration 2 is a copy of that in Plantarum umbelliferarum) in Part 3 of the Historia and the fruits of ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso Sulcato plano’ with the top row (illustration 3) of the Historia. ‘Cachrys Semine fungoso levi’ was unillustrated in the Historia.

All the plates are sponsored but none have a named engraver associated with them. The sponsors are:

Tab. 1: Peter Mews (1619-1706), President of St. John’s College, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1669-1673), later Bishop of Bath and Wells and then Bishop of Winchester;
Tab. 2: John Fell (1625-1686), Dean of Christ Church College, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1666-1669) and instrumental in founding the Oxford University Press;
Tab. 3: Thomas Yates (c.1604-1681), Principal of Brasenose College (1660-1681) and promotor of Oxford University Press;
Tab. 4: Richard Allestree (1621/2-1681), Provost of Eton College;
Tab. 5: Ralph Bathurst (1620-1704), Founder Member of the Royal Society, President of Trinity College, later Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1673-1676);
Tab. 6: Henry Compton (1631/2-1713), Canon of Christ Church, later Bishop of Oxford then Bishop of London;
Tab. 7: Thomas Willis (1621-1675), physician, member of the Oxford Experimental Philosophical Clubbe and Founder Member of the Royal Society;
Tab. 8: Gilbert Ironside (1631/2-1701), Warden of Wadham College, later Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1687-1689), Bishop of Bristol and then Bishop of Hereford.
Tab. 9: John Lamphire (1614-1688), physician, Camden Professor of history in Oxford, head of Hart Hall (now Hertford College);
Tab. 10: Sebastian Smith (d.1674), Canon of Christ Church;
Tab. 11: Robert South (1634-1716), prebendary of Westminster, Canon of Christ Church and University Orator;
Tab. 12: Peter Eliot, physician.