146 * JOHN BLACKSTONE. [^«2/j 



that this copy came into the possession of the latter owner the 

 very year of Mr. Blackstone's death. The following note is in 

 his holography " Plantce qua in hoc libro Jicecnota prcefixa est ( x ) 

 in nostra sicco horto asservantur. J. Blackstone, 1736." 



Our author appears to have had in his herbarium most of the 

 plants of Ray's ' Synopsis.' In the margin opposite to the names 

 of the rariores there are notes of fresh localities where Mr. 

 Blackstone had seen them. These are chiefly in the home or 

 metropolitan counties and in the adjoining shires of Bucks, 

 Oxford, Wilts, Berks, etc. 



This work on the botany of a single parish, is curious 'dnd valu^ 

 able; for it is the first example of a complete enumeration of 

 the productions of a small district, a tract containing probably 

 not more than from sixteen to twenty square miles, and it has 

 been the pattern which subsequent botanical topographers have 

 successfully imitated. They could not have had a better model; 

 for the loci natales (the localities) — as he calls their places of 

 growth — are ample, precise, and satisfactory. Some of them, no 

 doubt, have long ceased to produce the species which grew there 

 in his time, because the land is now used for more important 

 crops than simples. Though this iS ' liot' to be regretted, still it 

 is interesting to hunt out the remains of the ancient vegetation 

 and ascertain the few species that still linger about the ancient 

 loci natales, the former habitats/^wqu 'lo'i J)ooi{-iJJodd§i9u Qdi ui 



We are indebted to this eminent LbiviioN Simpler for an- 

 other work, one still more important to the historian of the an- 

 ciently known localities of British plants, viz. Specimen^ ^Bo- 

 TANicuM, quo Plantarum pluriimi rariorum AnglifB intHgenarum 

 Loci NATALES Ulustr antur . Tliis was published in 1746, and 

 contains 106 pages, and describes the loci natales of 366 species 

 of the more uncommon, or unfrequent, or rare English plants. 

 The arrangement is alphabetical, as in the Harefield List, and 

 the work may be described as the first " Botanical Guide " to 

 the British botanist. 



In the catalogue (alphabetical) of the Harefield plants, Mr. 

 Blackstone only quotes one contemporary botanist. Did he 

 labour alone ? Almost. He quotes the works of Parkinson, 

 Gerarde, Merret, Petiver, Plukenet, Morison or Bobart, Ray and 

 Lobel, all eminent English botanists ; and among foreigners, 

 Caspar Bauhin, Chabrpeus, Dillenius, Tournefort, and Scheuchzer. 



