CXVUl FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



of British plants, was born at Black Notley, near Braintree in Essex, 

 on November 29, 1628. His father, Roger Ray, a blacksmith, gave 

 him a good education, first at the Grammar School of Bi-aintree, and 

 subsequently at Cambridge, "vvhere he entered at St, Catherine's Hall 

 on June 28, 1644, under the tuition of Mr. Duckfield, being then in 

 his sixteenth year. In about two years' time he migrated to Trinity 

 College, where he was fortunate in having the eminent Greek scholar 

 Dr. Duport as his tutor, and made a friend of a fellow-student, after- 

 wards the celebrated Dr. Isaac Barrow. In 1649 he was chosen a 

 Junior Fellow of Trinity ; in 1651 he took his Master of Arts degree 

 and became a Senior Fellow of the same College. In the following 

 years he filled various offices connected with the College, and acted 

 as tutor to several gentlemen of position, the most eminent among 

 them being Mr. Francis Willughby of Middleton Hall, in Warwick- 

 shire, who had the same love for natural science as Ray, and who 

 became not only his patron but also his intimate friend and fellow- 

 traveller. Mr. Willughby's posthumous works, edited by Ray, show 

 how considerable were his claims to scientific honours. 



Ray's first botanical work was the Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam 

 nascentium, printed at Cambridge in 1660, a small duodecimo volume 

 of 182 pages. Previously to publishing this work Ray had visited 

 several parts of England and Wales for the investigation of their native 

 plants ; this, his first botanical tour, as we gather from his itineraries, 

 occupied nearly five weeks, from August 19 to September 18, 1658, and 

 led him through the counties of Northampton, Warwick, Lincoln, 

 Leicester, Derby, Lancaster, Chester, Salop, Worcester, and Gloiicester, 

 besides four of the Welsh counties. In i66r, in company with Mr. 

 Willughby, he travelled through Huntingdonshire, Northamptonsliire, 

 Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, returning through Cum- 

 bei'land and Westmoreland. In May, 1662, again accompanied by 

 Mr. Willughby, he visited the South-West of England, passing through 

 Devon and Cornwall, and taking the counties of Dorset, Wilts, and 

 Hants on his way back in July. In the same year he was deprived of 

 his Fellowship for refusing to sign the declaration against the Solemn 

 League and Covenant. In 1663, with Mr. Willughby and some other 

 fi-iends, he visited the Continent, remaining abroad till 1665. In 1667, 

 he again travelled through the Western Counties to Devon and Corn- 

 wall, coming back through London. In 1668, he and Mr. Willughby 

 carried on many investigations into the movement of sap in trees. 



In 1670 he published his first work on the general flora of Britain 

 under the title of CoMlog^s Plantarum Angliae, London, 1670, in an 

 octavo volume of 358 pages. It is modelled upon his Catalogue of 

 Cambi'idge plants as to the arrangement of the matter, but is more 

 sparing in the citation of synonyms. It enumerates about one thousand 



