Morison, Robert

Robert Morison, (born 1620, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire [now in Aberdeen City council area], Scotland—died November 10, 1683, London, England), Scottish botanist whose work, along with that of his contemporary John Ray, served to elucidate and develop the systematic classification of plants.

Morison was the director of the Royal Gardens at Blois, France (1650–60). He returned to England as physician to Charles II and as the botanist and superintendent of all the royal gardens. He was appointed the first regius professor of botany at the University of Oxford (1669–83).

Morison’s Praeludia botanica (1669), based on the catalog of plants at Blois, contained detailed criticism of the seminal classification theories of Jean and Gaspard Bauhin. Morison was dissatisfied with classification based on habit, inflorescence, and vegetative or medicinal qualities; he argued for basing it on morphological features—specifically on the form and structure of fruit—alone. His attempt to apply his taxonomic principles to the entire plant kingdom, Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis, 2 vol. (1680–99), failed to follow his principles consistently. While Morison’s conceit and arrogance hindered collaboration with his contemporaries, later botanists such as Carolus Linnaeus and Joseph de Tournefort acknowledged his influence.