Who was Jacob Bobart the Elder?
Jacob Bobart the Elder was a 17th century German botanist and gardener who moved to England o be the first head gardener of Oxford Botanic Garden.
Life and Work
He was the first superintendent of the Oxford Botanic Garden, Oxford, England and father to Jacob Bobart the Younger and Tilleman Bobart.
Bobart is credited with the authorship of the Catalogus plantarum horti medici Oxoniensis (1648), the first catalogue of plants in the Physic Garden. He was a skilled grafter of trees and vines and is credited with the development of a grafting method, which he used to make the 'White Frontiniac' grape fruit early.