Ordering plants
Commentary
Morison rejected the usefulness of anthropogenic and exogenous features for the classification of plants in favour of biological features. Morison work, focused on the detailed examination of plants and the accumulation of evidence, contributed to the foundations of the plant classification systems that emerged during the eighteenth century. Over three centuries of sifting evidence, combined with philosophical and technical developments, together with understanding of evolution and genetics, has produced modern plant classification systems which have high predicivity (Yoon, 2009). That is, based on combinations of characters one can make predictions about likely features and relationships of plants. For example, floral features of the Brazilian plant in the image enable us to place it in the mallow family.
In his time, Morison’s classification system was eclipsed by that of his contemporary, the Essex-based naturalist John Ray (1627-1705). Ray’s Methodus plantarum nova (1682) was published two years after Morison died, and would eventually form the basis for his magnum opus, Historia Plantarum (1686, 1688, 1704). Many reasons have been advanced for the rejection of Morison’s classification system by naturalists after its publication. These include his death before the whole system was published, his poor relationship with John Ray and his vanity in refusing to acknowledge his debt to earlier botanists, particularly the sixteenth-century Italian botanist Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603) (Vines and Druce, 1914; Vines, 1911; Raven, 1950; Mandelbrote, 2015).
Financially, the Historia proved an encumbrance to the University, as vast amounts of money were spent in engraving the copper plates, but no profit was realised from sales (Mandlebrote, 2015). Academically, the potential of the Historia as an illustrated catalogue of plant diversity was not realised.
References
Mandelbrote S 2015. The publication and illustration of Robert Morison's Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis. Huntington Library Quarterly 78: 349-379.
Raven CE 1950. John Ray: naturalist. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Vines SH 1911. Robert Morison (1620-1683) and John Ray (1627-1705). In FW Oliver (ed) Makers of British botany. A collection of biographies by living botanists. Cambridge, at the University Press, pp. 8-43.
Vines SH and Druce GC 1914. An account of the Morisonian Herbarium in the possession of the University of Oxford together with biographical and critical sketches of Morison and the two Bobarts and their works and the early history of the Physic Garden 1619-1720. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Yoon CK 2009. Naming nature. The clash between instinct and science. New York, W.W. Norton & Company.