Taxa Field Guide

For Jacob Bobart (1599–1680), German botanist and the first horti praefectus (superintendent, head gardener) of the Oxford Physic Garden; which cultivated medical herbs; the first garden of its kind in England. He was the author of Catalogus Plantarum Horti Medici Oxoniensis, sci Latino-Anglicus et Anglico-Latinus (1648); a catalogue of 1600 plants that were in the garden. His son, Jacob Bobart the Younger (1641–1719), succeeded his father as horti praefectus and became acting professor of botany at Oxford.

Ancient Gk. Ixia = a Linnaeus-derived name for a plant noted for the variability of its flower colour or Gk. ixos = mistletoe (viscum), birdlime; referring to the viscous sap (WPU Jackson).

Linnaeus married Sara Elisabeth Moraea; her father was Dr. Johan Moraeus, the town physician of Falun. The name "Morea" was originally given by Philip Miller after "Robert More of Shropshire", but was taken over by Linnaeus and changed to Moraea.

For the legendary Romulus, founder and first king of Rome.

Tritonia (q.v.); Gk. -iopsis = resembling.

Scrophularia was derived from scrophula (scrofula) and was used in its treatment, because of the similarity between the roots of some species and tuberculous swellings.

For Carl (Karl) Gottlob Rafn (1769–1808), Danish civil servant, botanist and science writer. He studied medicine and botany at the University of Copenhagen in 1788, and later veterinary science, but did not take the exams. He had a range of jobs such as an agriculture assessor and director of a distillery, but his main interests were natural history and science. He authored or co-authored a range of publications, including the Flora of Denmarks and Holstein, a book on plant physiology (1798), a paper on animal hibernation with JD Herholdt, and a book on life-saving measures for drowning persons. He became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences in 1798.

Gk. agapē = love; anthos = flower. Derivation unknown. Agapeo means ‘to be contented with’. Perhaps the author, L’Héritier, was expressing his pleasure, i.e. ‘flower with which I am well pleased’.

Gk. aloē (from earlier Semitic word alloeh) = bitter. The liquid or dried juice found in the leaves is bitter.

For Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert (1773–1847), French banker, industrialist, philanthropist and amateur botanist. After serving with the Paris National Guard from 1790–1793, where he became an artillery officer, he joined his father’s bank. A gifted and energetic entrepreneur, he started many commercial enterprises – a cotton factory in 1801 and a beet-sugar factory in 1802. He became regent of the Bank of France (1802) and introduced the idea of a savings bank in France (with Jean-Conrad Hottingerces) in 1818. He was an ardent botanist and conchologist with a notable herbarium and a botanical library of 30 000 volumes. He wrote several books and financed several exquisitely illustrated shell books. He was made a baron by Napoleon.