CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 349 



trouble, my issues giving me no relief. The lapis medi- 

 camentosus is too sharp for me. Myself and mine are, 



Sir, 

 Very much yours, 



JOHN RAY. 



Paradisus Batavus, continens plus Centum Plantes, &c. 



The learned and much celebrated herbarist, Dr. Paul 

 Herman, author of this work, whose name alone is 

 sufficient to recommend it to the ingenious reader, 

 designed therein to give us the history of such rare and 

 nondescript plants, as well European as Indian, as were 

 cultivated either in public physic-gardens, or those of 

 private curious persons, in and about Holland, as we see 

 now accordingly performed. Of some of these he pre- 

 sents us with both descriptions and figures ; of others 

 with descriptions only; and of others which had been 

 before described, but not delineated, with figures, refer- 

 ring us for their descriptions to their first authors. Of 

 the first kind, this work contains more than 100 species, 

 digested in an alphabetical order. The author intended 

 a second and third century, for which he had prepared 

 materials, having caused many more plants to be drawn 

 by hand, which are not as yet engraven, a catalogue 

 whereof the editor hath added to the end of the book, 

 which it were to be desired some public-spirited persons 

 or societies would be at the charge of cutting in brass, 

 that so great a treasure be not wholly suppressed and 

 lost. 



All that I shall or need say of this piece is, that the 

 descriptions are very accurate, and sufficient alone to 

 lead us into a certain and unerring knowledge of the 

 plants described, and withal concise, and not encumbered 

 with superfluous and unnecessary stuff, which obscures 

 rather than illustrates ; and that the icones are answer- 

 able to the descriptions, not needing their assistance to 

 give us a certain idea of the species they represent ; to 



