CXXIV FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



rium), Chara hispida, Myriophyllum alterniflorum, Limnanthemum peltaium, 

 Dnjopteris dilafata, D. TJielypieris or D. moniana, and Osmunda regcdis, already 

 recorded by Doody, but here definitely given as a Berkshire plant. 

 Orchis Simla and Militaris, which are represented in the herbarium, are 

 also mentioned. 



In the Du Bois herbarium there is a specimen of Lonicera Caprifolium 

 labelled ' Peridymerium albo perfoUatum serotinum. D. Harding,' with the 

 note ' Mr. Scrousby hath it from Hinksey.' This is the only informa- 

 tion respecting its place of growth. In the same herbarium there is 

 a specinaen of Polystichum angidare gathered near Newbury by Bobart. 

 In Hearne's Collections (vol. ii. of Doble's edition), under date May 21-24, 

 1711, is a letter of his in which he says : 'Tell him [Mr. Brokesby] 

 that Mr. Bobart has found Carawaies [Carum Ca)-vi'\ in a close near 

 Audley, which is not far from Beading. 'Tis a good distance from 

 any garden, and he took it for certain to be wild/ 



Bobart is said to have been of a humorous disposition, and Dr. Grey 

 in his notes on Hudibras relates ' that he transformed a dead rat into 

 the feigned figure of a dragon, by thrusting in taper sharp sticks which 

 distended the skin, till it resembled wings, and altered its head and 

 tail. It was then allowed to dry very hard, when it so imposed on 

 the naturalists to whom it was shown that they immediately pro- 

 nounced it a dragon, and several fine copies of verses were written on 

 so rare a subject. A description of the lusus naturae was sent to 

 Dr. Magliabecchi, Librarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, but at last 

 Mr. Bobart owned the cheat. However, it was looked upon as a 

 master-piece of art, and as such deposited in the Museum or Anatomy- 

 school, where I saw it some years after.* 



At the age of seventy-nine Bobart was forced by the Vice -Chancellor, 

 Dr, Skippen, to resign the Chair of Botany. William Sherard writes : 

 ' I was surprised to learn that he was compelled to resign ; they ought 

 to have allowed him to spend the short remainder of his days in the 

 garden.' He died a few months after, and was buried in the church 

 of St. Peter-in-the-East. 



Dr. Abel Evans dedicated Vertumnus, a poetical epistle of thirty-three 

 Images, to him in 1713. One verse of it is here subjoined : — 



' Their bark, their flowers, or leaves, 

 Thy Hortus Siccus still receives : 

 In tomes, twice ten, that work immense 

 By thee compiled at vast expense.' 



The poem, of which the author has a copy, is included in the Select 

 Collection of Poems, vol. iii. p. 145, of 1780. Dr. Kreigh's Album in the 

 British Museum contains the following autograph of Bobart : ' Virtus 

 sua gloria. Think that day lost whose descending sun Views from thy 

 hand no action done. Your success and happyness wished by Jacob 



