In 1682, Sibbald began assembling material for a projected two volume geographical description or atlas of Scotland, recruiting parish ministers and members of the nobility and gentry to assist him in the task.

While the work was never published, many of the manuscripts describing aspects of the geography, natural history and antiquities of parts of Scotland have survived.

[7][8] His numerous and miscellaneous writings deal with historical and antiquarian as well as with botanical and medical subjects.

Sibbaldia procumbens[10] (Rosaceae), that Sibbald described and illustrated[11] in his book Scotia illustrata in 1684 (volume 2, tab.

[13] In 1941, the Russian botanist Sergei Vasilievich Juzepczuk (1893-1959) published Sibbaldianthe, also in the family Rosaceae, which has about 7 species.