CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 187 



it is somewhat probable that the brackish aliment of the 

 one does not mollify nor distend the cells of the leaves 

 so well as the other ; but that is but a conjecture. I wish 

 you all health and happiness ; and am, &c. 



London, August 10, 1686. 



Dr. ROBINSON to Mr. RAY. 



SIR, The other day I and Mr. Doody (an apothecary 

 here) had occasion to go five or six hours down the river, 

 we found many rare plants upon the chalk hills and 

 marshes^iear Gravesend ; but they are all mentioned by, 

 and very well known to you. We observed in the long 

 broad vesicles at the end of the leaves of the Fucus mari- 

 timus latifolius vulgatissimus, many small dark round 

 bodies adhering to the inner membranes, which contained 

 a mucous liquor; whereas the round bladders in the 

 other parts of the leaves were void of liquor, and of those 

 dark solid globules, which gave Mr. Doody and myself 

 reason to fancy that this plant abounds with seed, which, 

 upon drying, disappears. And this seems to me to be 

 no extravagant conjecture, for I begin to conclude that 

 the seed of this plant (and others of the same class) may 

 in time appear as manifest as the seed of the capillary 

 herbs. 



London, August 24, 86. 



Mr. JOHNSON to Mr. RAY. 



g IR) I did indeed once imagine a possibility of know- 

 ing the medicinal virtues of plants by their signatures, 

 which project, if it could have been brought to perfection, 

 might have been of great use to physicians, who know 

 nothing of them but by quack and second qualities, I 



