234 HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY. 



Castanea sativa Mill. Lathyrus hirsutus L. 



Convolvulus arvensis 'L,. L.maritimus Bigel. 



Coriandrum sativum L. Polygonum aviculare L. 

 Echinophora spinosa L. var. littovale (Link) ? 



Crocus sativus L. Ruhus thyrsoidcus Bell. 



Spartina stvicta Roth. Trifolium scahrum L. 

 Galeopsis angustifolia Ehrh.? And Tragopogon minus Mill, 

 (twice) 



Of these, Castanea is erased in Merrett's own copy, the record 

 of Convolvulus is merely that of " C. minimus spiar folius " from 

 Parkinson (vide supra, pp. 173-1), and that of Coriandnim is only 

 as a cultivated plant. Crithmum spinosum or Echinophora, is, as 

 has been already mentioned, only quoted from How's Phytoloeia 

 to be contradicted, and Crocus is also enumerated as cultivated. 

 On p. 69 is the entry Ladanum segetum Plin. G. 6gg. 7. Sideritis 

 arvensis flora rubro Cam. P. 58. . . and at Purfleet in 

 Essex;" and, on p. 113, ^' Sidentis arvensis rubra. P. 587. 13. 

 Tetvahit angustifolia Hist. Lugd., . . and at Purbeck in Essex." 

 These two entries are undoubtedly both taken from that in 

 Johnson's Ger. em. p. 6gg quoted above (p. 175 supra), and 

 Parkinson's Theatriim p. 587, and refer to one species, Galeopsis 

 angustifolia Ehrh., in all probability, and to Purfleet. This 

 reduces Merrett's additions to our county flora to seven, most of 

 which present points of special interest. 



p. 58. " Gramen Sparteum capitc bifida vd gcmino. . . At Crixey ferry in 

 Essex." [Spartina stricia Roth.] 



Merrett's discovery of this salt-marsh species, which we now 

 know from the shores of Western Europe from Portugal to 

 Holland, and in England from Devon to Lincolnshire, attracted 

 the attention of the more accurate Adam Buddie, who became 

 vicar of Great Fambridge in 1705. In his manuscript Flora, 

 written in 1708, he says, " I found it in Aug. 1703 abundantly in 

 the marshes upon the River Wallfleet, near Fambridge Ferry in 

 Dengey hundred in Essex." A description of it, from Petiver's 

 hortus siccus, appeared in the Appendix to the third volume of 

 Ray's Historia Plantarnm (p. 248) in 1704, possibly from the pen 

 of Buddie, and it appears as No. 35 in Petiver's Gramimm 

 Concordia (much of which is copied from Buddie's manuscript), in 

 1 716, under the name Spartnm Essexianum, spica gemina clausa. 

 This name is employed in Dillenius's edition of the Synopsis (1724), 

 where the description runs: "sparteum serotinum, spica totali in 



