(Robert), physician and professor of botany at Oxford, was born at Aberdeen in 1620, bred at the university there, and taught philosophy for some time in it; but having a strong inclination to botany, made great progress in it. The civil wars obliged him to leave his country; which, however, he did not do till he had first signalized his zeal for the interest of the king, and his courage, in a battle fought between the inhabitants of Aberdeen and the Presbyterian troops on the bridge of Aberdeen, in which he received a dangerous wound on the head. As soon as he was cured of it, he went into France; and fixing at Paris, he applied assiduously to botany and anatomy. He was introduced to the duke of Orleans, who gave him the direction of the royal gardens at Blois. He exercised the office till the death of that prince, and afterwards went over to England in 1660. Charles II., to whom the duke of Orleans had presented him at Blois, sent for him to London, and gave him the title of his physician, and that of professor royal of botany, with a pension of 200l. per annum. The Preludium Botanicum, which he published in 1669, procured him so much reputation, that the university of Oxford invited him to the professorship of botany in 1669; which which he accepted, and acquitted himself in it with great ability. He died at London in 1633, aged 63.

He published a second and third part of his History of Plants, in 2 vols, folio; with this title, *Plantarum Historia Oxoniensis Universalis*. The first part of this excellent work has not been printed; and it is not known what has become of it.