Morisonian Herbarium

Commentary
Morisonian Herbarium

Despite its name, the Morisonian Herbarium was put together by Jacob Bobart the Younger to support Part III of Morison’s Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis and is arranged according to Morison’s Sciagraphia (Harris, 2016). There is no evidence that Robert Morison made any additions to this herbarium collection.

Jacob Bobart the Younger also contributed large numbers of specimens, and annotations, to the Sherardian Herbarium, from which many of the Morisonian specimens were abstracted in the late nineteenth century by George Claridge Druce (1850-1932). The Morisonian Herbarium comprises some 6,500 specimens mounted on individual sheets and has been documented by Vines and Druce (1914). Given its complex history, interpretation of this collection must be approached with caution.

The specimen illustrated is a typical Morisonian sheet. The specimens usually have a border of paper, decorated with ink spots, stuck to the sheet; borders are black/brown, blue, red or yellow. In this case the whole plant has been harvested and pressed. Bobart has put temporary labelling in pencil on the paper and come back later to make the label out in ink. Later additions have been made by Druce and Henry Edward Fowler Garnsey (1826-1903), who acted as Druce’s assistant. The purple stamp was added by Druce.
This plant, a sort of buttercup, was not growing the Physic Garden between 1648 and 1676. The specimen was probably a gift from a European botanist, possibly in France. The description of the plant, which appears in Part Two of the Historia, notes that the plant flowers in March.

Bobart the Younger also exchanged specimens with Charles Dubois (c.1658-1740), cashier-general of the East Indian Company, William Sherard (1659-1728), Hans Sloane (1660-1753) and many botanists on the continent.

References

Harris SA 2016. Illustrations in the Morisonian Herbarium. Oxford Plant Systematics 22: 10-11.

Vines SH and Druce GC 1914. An account of the Morisonian Herbarium. Oxford, Clarendon Press.