Scottish Botanist and Taxonomist. He is best remembered for developing the first systematic classification of plants. After receiving his Master of Arts degree from the University of Aberdeen, he joined English King Charles I Cavaliers during the English Civil War (or the First Bishop's War) and was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Bridge of Dee in 1639. After recovering, he fled to France and in 1648, he graduated with a medical degree at the University of Angers and focused his efforts on the study of botany. For the next ten years, he was the director of the Royal Gardens at Blois, Central France. Then, in 1660 he returned to England following the Restoration and became physician to Charles II as well as his botanist and superintendent of all the royal garden. In 1669 he became the first professor of botany at Oxford University and he published his "Praeludia Botanica", a work which stressed using the structure of a plant's fruits for classification. The same year, he also published '"ortus Regius Blesensis", a catalogue of the Royal Blois Garden to which he added the description of 260 previously undescribed plants. In the preface to his 1672 publication "Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova", he defined the principles of his method and was the first person ever to write a "monograph of a specific group of plants", the Umbelliferae (or aromatic flowering plants). On November 9, 1683 he was critically injured when he was hit by a carriage as he was crossing the street, and he succumbed to his injuries the following day.
Scottish Botanist and Taxonomist. He is best remembered for developing the first systematic classification of plants. After receiving his Master of Arts degree from the University of Aberdeen, he joined English King Charles I Cavaliers during the English Civil War (or the First Bishop's War) and was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Bridge of Dee in 1639. After recovering, he fled to France and in 1648, he graduated with a medical degree at the University of Angers and focused his efforts on the study of botany. For the next ten years, he was the director of the Royal Gardens at Blois, Central France. Then, in 1660 he returned to England following the Restoration and became physician to Charles II as well as his botanist and superintendent of all the royal garden. In 1669 he became the first professor of botany at Oxford University and he published his "Praeludia Botanica", a work which stressed using the structure of a plant's fruits for classification. The same year, he also published '"ortus Regius Blesensis", a catalogue of the Royal Blois Garden to which he added the description of 260 previously undescribed plants. In the preface to his 1672 publication "Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova", he defined the principles of his method and was the first person ever to write a "monograph of a specific group of plants", the Umbelliferae (or aromatic flowering plants). On November 9, 1683 he was critically injured when he was hit by a carriage as he was crossing the street, and he succumbed to his injuries the following day.
Bio by: William Bjornstad
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