JOHN DALE 295 



of all the British plants then known, to be followed by a History, 

 and that the work was to be done in association with a Dr. Dale, 

 ' Botanologus peritus '. 



The only botanist of that name in Merrett's time who is at all 

 well-known, or indeed appears in Messrs. Britten & Boulger's Index 

 of British Botanists, is Dr. Samuel Dale of Braintree, who in after 

 years gave such valuable assistance to Ray, and was often mentioned 

 in his botanical works. It is, therefore, but natural for an uncritical 

 reader, on encountering a solitary mention of Dr. Merrett's proposed 

 partner Dr. Dale, to assume unconsciously that the reference was 

 to Dr. Samuel Dale. Merrett was, however, writing at the College 

 of Physicians in August 1666, a few days before the outbreak of 

 the Great Fire, and Samuel, who is believed to have been born in 

 Whitechapel in 1659, could not then have been a distinguished 

 ' Botanologist '. Nor must he be confused with William Dale of 

 Queen's College, the helper of the younger Bobart.^ 



John Ward,^ writing in 1662, also mentions Dr. Dale, and rather 

 as if he were the originator of the idea of re-editing the Phytologia 

 Britannica ; and, lastly, John Ward's editor, Sir D'Arcy Power, 

 notes that ' no record of his (Dale's) attainments in botany seems to 

 have survived '. Ward had, however, a high idea of him : ' there 

 are in London but two doctors y' have any great skill in simpling, 

 y' is Dr. Moddesey {i.e. Morison) and Dr. Dale'; and in 1661 he 

 noted one of his prescriptions. 



' White Mullen or Higtaper : wash itt and fume itt and boyl itt with hog's 

 grease, y^^ add Red Lead and Linseed Oil. It is said to bee excellent good 

 against y® piles. Dr. Dale. I find ye same in a manner in Gerard's Herbal 

 with but very little difference.'^ 



Except in a single instance I have not met with any mention of 

 the name of Dale among the Goodyer papers, but nevertheless 

 there are good grounds for attributing to him the authorship of 

 certain manuscripts, and a few notes in the margins of Goodyer's 

 copies of Parkinson's Theatrmn ; Turner's Herbal, P- 10 ; Thalius 



^ * Mr. Bobart, the Botanist, was greatly assisted in the 11'^ vol. of ye Oxford 

 History of Plants, by Mr. Dale of Queen's College, who revised the whole and 

 put it into proper Latin for him. Presently after the Death of the said Mr. Dale, 

 I had a sight of a Folio Book in MS* drawn up by himself, being Tables & 

 Explications on Aristotle's Rhetorick ' (Hearne, Diary 1705, Nov. 6). 



'^ The Rev. John Ward of Christ Church had taken his M.A. in 1652. His 

 sixteen commonplace books are now preserved in the library of the Medical 

 Society of London. (D'Arcy Power, Ann. Med. Hist, ii, p. 123.) 



' Information from Sir D'Arcy Power, who has been kind enough to tran- 

 scribe for me the paragraphs relating to Dale in J. Ward's Diary. 



