CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 353 



about several natural curiosities, which he entitles 

 'Recherches et Observations Naturelles,' Paris, 1671; 

 Amsterdam, 1674; and ' Recherches et Observations 

 Curieuses/ Paris, 1671, written in French, and printed 

 at Amsterdam. In this present work he gives us a large 

 collection of rare plants, the greatest part whereof are 

 new and nondescript, curiously delineated and engraven 

 in 130 octavo plates, which he divides into decades, 

 inscribing each decade to a Venetian nobleman. Two 

 defects there are in this work ; the one want of. method, 

 the other of descriptions. 1 . As for method, there is 

 none at all observed in it, the species being . promis- 

 cuouslyafcd indiscreetly placed as they came to hand, 

 without any order or connexion. 2. Besides the names, 

 the stature, and magnitude/ the places where he found 

 them, or the persons 'from whom He received them, lie 

 hath to a great number of. these plants added no descrip- 

 tions of the principal parts, root, stalks, leaf, flower, fruit. 

 This though he endeavours to excuse, p. 171, by telling 

 us that he writes to such as are advanced in the know- 

 ledge of botanies, who need no long descriptions, and to 

 whom they would be rather tedious than useful, and not 

 to novices, yet can he not easily persuade us but that 

 concise exact descriptions would ease the greatest pro- 

 ficients of much trouble in rinding out and exactly deter- 

 mining the species. He had also obliged us if he had 

 given us the synonyms of such as he took to have been 

 described by others before him, together with the names 

 of the authors of such synonyms and descriptions. This 

 also he endeavours to excuse by want of time and books. 

 Yet all this notwithstanding we ought rather thankfully 

 to accept what he hath done, by enriching the history of 

 plants with such a multitude of new species, than to 

 censure or reprehend him for what we apprehend he hath 

 omitted, which he might have done. 



Besides this main subject of this work, the author 

 intermixes many curious observations and remarks, phy- 

 siological and medicinal. As, for instance, he tells us 



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