BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION IN MIDDLESEX. 391 



and money very hard to get at,' he already contemplated a publication of 

 the localities collected together since 1737.* These were printed in 17^6, 

 in the Specimen Botanicum, quo jplantarum phtrium rariorum AnglicB indi- 

 genarum loci natales illustraiitur, which consists of original localities in 

 various parts of England of 366 more or less rare species in alphabetical 

 order. Many of the localities in the Fasciculus are repeated here, but there 

 are besides numerous additions to the Middlesex Flora. There are two 

 plates of Fungi in the volume. Not a few of the localities in our county 

 were contributed by correspondents — John Wilmer, William Watson.f John 

 Hill, Mr. Hurlock, and Mr. Nichols. This, says Pulteney, ' I consider as 

 the last book published in England on the indigenous botany before the 

 system of Linnaeus had gained the ascendency over that of Mr. Eay.' 



Of Blackstone's relatives we know nothing ; his mother was living in 

 1737. He died in 1753. His dried plants are now in the British Museum, 

 and the copy of Kay already noticed is in some sort a guide to them, Black- 

 stone having marked with a cross all those species of which he possessed 

 specimens. 



In the Harefield Catalogue a very large number of plants, chiefly the 

 commoner species, were first recorded as natives of our county ; and, in all, 

 Blackstone was the first to put on record no less than 232 species as 

 Middlesex inhabitants. Amongst these are the chalk plants, including a 

 number of orchids, many of which have since become extinct. Our own 

 explorations at Harefield have corroborated so many of Blackstone's obser- 

 vations as to make us trust him for the rest ; and though he cannot be 

 considered as a botanist of a high order, he seems to have been a good and 

 careful observer in the field. His name is connected with the discovery of 

 Dentaria bulbifera, Lathrcsa, and Fritillaria, all at Harefield. 



We have now arrived at the period of the writings of Linnaeus, destined 

 to work so great a revolution in science. The first sketch of the sexual 

 system of classification was published at Leyden in 1735, in the Systema 

 NaturcB, and this was followed by the Genera Plantarum, in 1737. The 

 year before (1736), Linnaeus himself had paid a visit to this country.^ 

 The Species Tlantarum appeared first in 1753 at Stockholm, and soon after 

 this the views of its illustrious author began to gain favour in England. 



The first § British flora arranged on the new system was published in 

 1760, the author being the celebrated and versatile Dr. (commonly called 

 Sir) John Hill. The Flora Britannica is a slovenly performance, in which 

 the matter of the Dillenian edition of the Synopsis is re-arranged under 



* In the library of the British Museum is a copy of the second edition of Eay's 

 Synopsis (969, f . 18) with Blackstone's autograph, and the date ' 1736,' in which he 

 entered these localities as he obtained them. 



t Afterwards Sir WiUiam Watson, F.R.S. ; for an account of whom see PuUeney's 

 Sketches, ii. pp. 295-340. 



X In his copy of the Dillenian edition of Ray's Synopsis (now in the library of the 

 Linnfean Society) Linnaeus has written, ' emi Londin. 1736.' 



§ Grufberg, one of Linnaeus' pupils at Upsal, had already in 1754 arranged the plants 

 of the Synopsis by their Linneean names. The list is printed in the Amoenitates A cade- 

 micce, iv. pp. 88-111. 



