son of Dr Humphrey Sibthorp, Professor
of Botany at Oxford, and was born in that
city in 1758. Being brought up to the
medical profession, he prosecuted his studies at
Edinburgh, where the taste he had early imbibed
for natural history, especially botany, was culti-
vated and increased. At the close of his academical
course he visited France and Switzerland, and
spent a considerable time at Montpelher, where he
communicated to the Academy des Sciences of
that town an account of his numerous botanical
discoveries in the neighbourhood, and was enrolled
a member of that society.

Having conceived the desire of visiting Greece
for the purpose of botanical investigation, he passed
part of the year 1784 at Gottingen, and afterwards
made the tour of Germany. Proceeding to Vienna,
he cultivated the friendship of the principal pro-
fessors of his favourite science there, studied with