62 MEMOIR OF 



from Psalm xxxix. 5. " Verily, every man at 

 his best estate is altogether vanity," and which 

 is among his most admired productions as a 

 preacher. 



In the preface to the Catalogus Plantarum, he 

 speaks of him as, " Vir de republica literaria 

 optime meritus, antiqua fide et sinceritate, singu- 

 lari animi simplicitate et candore, vitae probitate 

 et innocentia, nee vulgari morum comitate et 

 modestia conspicuus." The work in which Mr 

 Willughby, and these other gentlemen, assisted 

 Mr Ray, is not a mere catalogue of plants ; it 

 contains also a copious enumeration of synonyms, 

 with the names of their authors, and is inter- 

 spersed with numerous highly philosophical 

 notices of the character and uses of the plants 

 and trees found in the neighbourhood of Cam- 

 bridge. It needs to be diligently perused, in 

 order to perceive how much reading, accurate 

 investigation, and diligent inquiry these early 

 but enlightened botanists sent into the world 

 under so modest a title. The names mentioned 

 in it of the different places round Cambridge, in 

 which they pursued their researches, revive 

 recollections in the mind of a Cantab. He wan- 

 ders with them in imagination " in the lanes and 

 closes at Chesterton," " in the closes at Ditton," 

 " Gamlingay," " Gog-magog hills," " Hill of 

 Health/' " on the moor at Cherry Hinton," 

 " Kingston wood, and in the closes and corn- 

 fields fast by," " Madingly, in the wood, in the 

 .lan'es and closes about the town," "Newmarket 



