100 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



3. That it is not clammy or ropy to the touch. 



4. That although I used the same knife to cut a hun- 

 dred of them, yet I could not perceive, all that time, that 

 the milk changed colour (as is usual with most vegetable 

 milks) upon the knife-blade. 



5. That it became, in the glass phial I drew it into, 

 suddenly concrete and stiff, and in some days dried into 

 a firm cake, or lump, without any serum at all. 



6. That it then also, when dried, retained its keen 

 biting taste, as it does at this day, yet not so fierce. Its 

 colour is now of a yellowish-green, yet very pale. 



7. This milk flows much faster from about the outmost 

 rim, or part equivalent to the bark of plants, than from 

 the more inward parts, &c. 



8. I observed these mushrooms even then, when they 

 abounded with milk (not to be endured upon our 

 tongues), to be exceeding full of fly-maggots ; and the 

 youngest and tenderest of them were very much eaten by 

 the small, gray, naked snail. 



You can tell me what author describes this mushroom, 

 and what he titles it. 



I have revised the History of Spiders, and added this 

 summer's notes. Also I have likewise brought into the 

 same method the land and fresh-water snails, having this 

 year added many species found in these northern lakes ; 

 and by way of appendix I have described all the shell- 

 stones that I have anywhere found in England, having 

 purposely viewed some places in Yorkshire, where there 

 are plenty. The tables of both I purpose to send you. 

 I am not so thoroughly stocked with sea-shells as I wish 

 and endeavour. I aim not at exotics, but those of our 

 own shires. Concerning St. Cuthbert's Beads, I find 

 three species of them in Craven ; and this makes it plain 

 that they have not been the back-bone of any creature, 

 because I find of them rarnous and branched like trees. 



York, October 12, 1672. 



