John Sibthorp

Thapsia garganica by Ferdinand Bauer from drawings made for "Flora Graeca" John Sibthorp (28 October 1758 – 8 February 1796) was an English botanist.

Education Sibthorp graduated from the University of Oxford in 1777 where he was an undergraduate student at Lincoln College, Oxford. He subsequently studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and University of Montpellier.

Career and research In 1784, he succeeded his father to the Sherardian chair. Leaving his professional duties to a deputy, he left England for Göttingen and Vienna, in preparation for a botanical tour of Greece (1786) and Cyprus (1787).

Returning to England at the end of the following year, he took part in the foundation of the Linnean Society of London in 1788, and set to work on a Flora of Oxfordshire, which was published in 1794 as Flora Oxoniensis.

He made a second journey to Greece, but developed consumption on the way home and died in Bath on 8 February 1796.

His will bequeathed his books on natural history and agriculture to the University of Oxford, and also founded Oxford's Sibthorpian Professorship of Rural Economy (subsequently titled the Sibthorpian Professorship of Plant Science). He directed that his endowment should first be applied to the publication of his Flora Graeca and Florae Graecae Prodromus, for which, however, he had done little beyond collecting some three thousand species and providing the plates. The task of preparing the works was undertaken by Sir J.E. Smith, who issued the two volumes of the Prodromus in 1806 and 1813, and six volumes of the Flora Graeca between 1806 and 1828. The seventh appeared in 1830, after Smith's death, and the remaining three were produced by John Lindley between 1833 and 1840.

The standard botanical author abbreviation Sibth. is applied to species he described.

Sibthorpian Chair and Professor The chair of Sibthorpian Professor at the University of Oxford is named after him. Current and previous holders include

Nicholas Harberd (since 2007) Chris J. Leaver (1990–2007) David Smith (1980–1987) Geoffrey Emett Blackman (1945–1980) James Anderson Scott Watson Joseph Henry Gilbert

Personal life Sibthorp was born in Oxford, the youngest son of Humphry Sibthorp (1713–1797), who, from 1747 to 1784, served as Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford and his first wife Sarah Waldo.