56 MEMOIR OF RAY. 



he had published a Catalogue Stirpium in exteris 

 regionibus, &c, which was now out of print ; and 

 his attention being recalled, by Rauwolf ' s book, to 

 exotic botany, he conceived that it would be of 

 advantage to travellers to have a condensed view of 

 the vegetables of Europe, exclusive of those indi- 

 genous to Britain, which were sufficiently illustrated 

 in his other works. He accordingly collected all 

 that were mentioned by authors, and added them to 

 such as he had himself discovered. This volume 

 appeared in 1694, and was entitled Stirpium Euro- 

 pcearum extra Britannias nascentium Sylloge. The 

 plants are arranged in alphabetical order, and, be- 

 sides the addition of various lists from Boccone's 

 Plants of Sicily, and other works, there is subjoined 

 a geographical view of the species which he observed 

 on the Continent ; perhaps the earliest attempt to 

 illustrate the distribution of vegetables that had been 

 made. In the prefaca to this book he discusses the 

 merits of a method of arranging plants, proposed by 

 Rivinus, professor of botany at Leipsic, which led to 

 a controversy with that author. The method of Ri- 

 vinus is entirely artificial, and is founded on the regu- 

 larity and irregularity of the corolla, and the number 

 of petals of which it is composed. It has the appear- 

 ance of great simplicity, but leads to many very un- 

 natural combinations, and is, in reality, of difficult 

 and vague application, as the flowers are more lia- 

 ble to vary in the number of their petals than al- 

 most any other part of structure. He was the first 



