Objects from the Oxford University Herbaria

Thanks to a partnership with Oxford University, we are able to display dried plants (herbarium specimens) and drawings related to the period when Henry Compton (Bishop of London 1675 – 1713) was growing over 1,000 plant species from around the world at Fulham Palace. The plant specimens are from the Du Bois Herbarium, and the drawings are from the Morison Herbarium, both at Oxford University.

The Du Bois Herbarium specimens

The Du Bois Herbarium was created by Charles Du Bois (1658 – 1740). Funded by his activities as treasurer of the East India Company, Du Bois became a patron of botanical collectors in the Americas, south Asia and southeast Asia. He raised plants in his garden in Mitcham, Surrey from seeds imported from around the world. His collection of dried plants consists of 13,000 specimens, and includes material collected at Fulham Palace (for example, the Devil’s Walking Stick and the Red Buckeye plant specimens seen here).

Devil’s Walking Stick

(OXF-DB-11739)

This plant, the Devil’s Walking Stick (Aralia spinosa) was known to Bishop Compton and his contemporaries as ‘Angelica arborescens spinosa, seu arbor Indica Fraxini folio, cortice spinosa’ – its spiny stems, decorative foliage and large flower heads are very unlike its close relative, our native Ivy (Hedera helix). This plant originates from Eastern North America and was already widely grown in early botanic and medicinal gardens. The accompanying image from Leonard Plukenet’s Phytographia depicts the plant in detail and mentions Edward Morgan (c.1615 – 1689) in whose then famous garden at Westminster the plant formerly grew.

Red Buckeye

(OXF-DB-11731)

According to the authoritative Hortus Kewensis compiled by William Aiton in the early 19th century, the Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) was first recorded as growing in England in Thomas Fairchild’s garden at Hoxton in 1711. This specimen was acquired by clergyman, antiquary and naturalist, the Rev. William Stonestreet (1659 – 1716), and sent to Jacob Bobart the Younger at the Oxford Botanic Garden.

At the end of the handwritten description of the plant, Bobart has commented ‘crescit in Horto Comptoniano’ meaning ‘growing in Compton’s garden’. Alongside the familiar white-flowered Horse-chestnut (A. hippocastanum), Red Buckeye, is one of the parent plants of the popular street and parkland tree Red Horse-chestnut (A. x carnea).

The Morison Herbarium specimens

The Morison Herbarium was put together by Jacob Bobart the Younger (1640 – 1719), to support the work of the professor of botany at Oxford University, Robert Morison (1620 – 1683).

Bobart the Younger was a son of Jacob Bobart the Elder (1599 – 1680), and succeeded his father as Hortus Praefectus (gardens director) of the Oxford Botanic Garden. Like his father, Bobart the Younger was an impressive plantsman, developed the fledgling garden and exchanged seed with a wide range of the botanical elite of the late-17th and early-18th centuries, particularly William Sherard (1659 – 1728), Hans Sloane (1660 – 1753), John Ray (1627 – 1705) and the Duchess of Beaufort (1630? – 1714).

The Morisonian Herbarium comprises 6,500 specimens and includes Bobart’s drawings of the Fulham plant specimens (Bush Ganna and Leeubekkie) seen on display here.

Bush Ganna

(OXF-Mor-Arb_0384)

This illustration of a South African plant now known Bush Ganna, Geelertjiebos or Kristinabos (Calobota cytisoides), appears to be a copy of the original from the now lost Codex Comptonianus. The Codex was presented to Bishop Compton by the State of Amsterdam in 1691 and was later copied by the eminent botanists Leonard Plukenet and James Petiver to illustrate their published works. Both Petiver and Plukenet were on friendly terms with the Bishop and regularly visited his garden.

Leeubekkie

(OXF-Mor-Misc_2219)

This illustration is from the same set of darwings as OXF-Mor-Arb_0384 and depicts a Leeubekkie, meaning ‘Snapdragon’ (Nemesia bicornis), a South African plant related to the garden Nemesia (N. strumosa) which is popular as a bedding  and hanging basket plant. These illustrations, and the Codex Comptonianus, upon which they were based, are copies of original watercolours made in 1685 – 6 during Simon van der Stel’s expedition to the Copper Mountains in Namaqualand. He later became the first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1691.

Thanks to the Oxford University Herbaria, Department of Biology, for the loan of these items.

Visit the museum to learn more and see these interesting specimens for yourself!