288 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



not seen the plants themselves, but only meeting with 

 descriptions or light mentions of some of their parts in 

 some, and others in other travellers, must needs be at a 

 loss about them, and often multiply species beyond what 

 there are in nature ; or else, for fear of unnecessary mul- 

 tiplication, contract two or three into one, as I find myself 

 to have done more than once or twice. 



Give me leave only to ask you, for my own satisfac- 

 tion, two or three questions. 1. Whether your Phyttitis 

 non sinuata minor, apice folii radices agents \Asplenwm 

 rhizophyllum, Linn.] be the same with, or different from, 

 that of Mr. Banister, figured in Dr. Plukenet's ' Phyto- 

 graphy,' Tab. 105? 2. Whether you did not observe 

 two species of maize in Jamaica ? I think I have myself 

 seen two different kinds ; and I remember there is men- 

 tion made of two in one of the ' Philosophic Transactions ' 

 lately printed, which I cannot now find. 3. Why you 

 make the Cam brasiliensibus Inhame de St. Thome, &c. 

 of Marcgrave [Dioscorea alata, Linn.] different from the 

 Igname sen Inhame, Clus. ' Var. Plant. Hist.' 1. 4, p. 78, 

 both coming from the same island? 4. What reason you 

 have to suspect the common Xylon or Gossipium herbaceum 

 [Gossypium herbaceum, Linn.] not to differ specifically 

 from the Arboreum, or Aminiju brasiliensibus, &c. of 

 Marcgrave, seeing in the common Xylon herbaceum the 

 cotton sticks fast to the seed round about, which it doth 

 not to the seed of the Bombax offic. (which I take to be 

 that of the Aminiju), and besides is not so situate nor 

 black of colour as that is ? 



You have enlightened me in many things ; and the col- 

 lections I may make out of your work will be the best 

 part of my Supplement. 



I am very glad when myself or friends discover any 

 errors or mistakes in my writings : thank God, that he 

 hath let me live so long as to acknowledge and amend 

 them. I have not yet compared the titles of your capil- 

 laries with Plunder's descriptions, for the figures I have 

 not by me, having remitted the book Mr. Smith sent me. 



