CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 327 



the insects lodged in the tumours. But enough of this. 

 My wife and girls are very much yours, and so is, 



Sir, 



Your affectionate friend and most humble servant, 



JOHN RAY. 



For his honoured friend, Dr. Hans Sloane, 



at his house at the corner of Southampton street, 

 towards Bloomsbury square, London. 



Mr. RAY to Dr. HANS SLOANE. 

 -^ Black Notley, July 15, 97. 



SIR, I gave you no advice of the receipt of your 

 Graminifolious tribe, because I had written word thereof 

 to Mr. Smith, and presumed he would acquaint you 

 therewith. I now remit it to you, attended with my 

 hearty thanks, and pray the loan of the next section. I 

 thought it not necessary to direct to Mr. Smith, but have 

 done it immediately to yourself, and hope it will safely 

 come to your hands, having bidden the messenger to lay 

 a strict charge upon the carrier to take great care of it. 

 I am not yet fully satisfied with your change of opinion 

 concerning the Milium indicum arundinaceum, &c., that it 

 is different from the Sorgum or Melica of the Italians. 

 For not only Caspar Bauhine's description of the Sorgum 

 agrees with yours of the Milium indicum, but to the best 

 of my memory the plant itself, which I saw cultivated in 

 Italy, answers your description. But it is a great while 

 ago since I saw the plant, and have no dried specimens 

 of it, and so may be mistaken. I did indeed take Fru- 

 mentum indicum quod Milium indicum vacant, C. B., to 

 be a species distinct from sorgum ; but we have no clear 

 knowledge of that. Hermans makes his Milium indicum 

 arundinaceo caule, &c. to be a distinct plant from Sorgum, 

 and one would think could not be therein mistaken, 

 having, as I presume from his inserting both in his Cata- 

 logue, cultivated both in his physic garden. If you have 



