CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 131 



here. This, with due thanks for your many favours and 

 great kindness, is all at present from 



Sir, 



Your affectionate friend and humble servant, 



JOHN RAY. 



For Dr. Hans.Sloane, at the 

 Duchess of Albemark's, iu Clcrkenwell, London. 



Mr. RAY'S Queries to Dr. TANKRED ROBINSON. 



1. WHETHER the bird called Macreuse [the Scoter, 

 Oidemia nigrd\ * at Paris be the Anas arctica of Clusius, 

 or the Manks Puffin, or a species distinct from both, 

 perhaps"*^ sort of Colymbus ? 



2. Whether the vapour ascending out of the earth, 

 and causing an appearance of boiling in a water called 

 the Boiling Fountain, at Peroul, near Montpellier, be 

 inflammable by the application of a lighted candle, &c., 

 as that is which causes the like phenomenon at Wigan, 

 in Lancashire. 



3. Of what sort of moss they make their cypress- 

 powder, and whether of more sorts than one, at 

 Montpellier ? Either bring a sample of it, or describe it 

 so exactly, that one may not mistake it. 



4. Whether the Chondrilla ccerulea Cyani capitulis 

 [Catananche ccerulea, Linn.] of Bauhinus, commonly 

 called Sesamoides, have naturally a full or double flower, 

 or only consisting of a pale or border of leaves, encircling 

 a thrum of small flowers, which are vulgarly mistaken 

 for stamina ? 



The like query I would make about the Cichorium 

 pratense vesicarium \Crepis vesicaria, Linn.] of Co- 

 lumna, which grows in the fields about Leghorn, as the 

 former does plentifully about Montpellier. 



5. Whether the Stcechas Citrina alter a tenuifolia sive 

 Italica, J. B., be specifically distinct from the Stcec. 

 Citrina tenuifolia Narbonensis, J. B. ? It grows plen- 

 tifully in the mountains of Liguria as about Gavi, 



* Living on fish, Roman Catholics eat this duck on maigre days. 



