CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 389 



spring. I want now not much but your contributions to 

 perfect the herb, part I mean so far as I am capable of 

 doing it. I wish you good success in your labours and 

 endeavours for carrying on and promoting natural history 

 and the knowledge of the works of God. For my part 

 I have done, finding my memory and parts fail me, and 

 being almost continually afflicted with pain, so that 

 indeed it is time for me to prepare for death, which seems 

 to approach. I rest, Sir, 



Yours to serve you, 



JOHN RAY. 



I pPBjt present my humble service to Dr. Sloane and 

 Dr. Sherard, and any other friends who may happen to 

 inquire of me. 



For Mr. James Petiver. 



Mr. RAY to [Mr. JAMES PETIVER?].* 



SIR, Your very obliging letter of April 1 came to my 

 hands last post, for which I return you most hearty 

 thanks. I am sorry that my bookseller should be con- 

 strained to give my friends the trouble of procuring 

 subscriptions for the printing of a book which perhaps 

 may not deserve it. That which gives it value is what 

 yourself, Dr. Sloane, and Dr. Sherard have already, and 

 shall yet further contribute to the enriching and perfecting 

 of it. Since I came to prosecute the work in good 

 earnest, I have been in no case to travel to visit gardens, 

 and to see plants growing, flowering, and seeding. Dried 

 specimens, figures, descriptions, and names of plants, is 

 all I have had to work by, so that I must needs be liable 

 to commit a thousand mistakes. Had I had several 

 specimens of the same plant, in its several growths, I 

 might have been better able to judge of it. Upon this 

 and other accounts, you and the persons forenamed would 



* Eound in the Sloane MS. without direction, but most probably is the 

 letter referred to at page 393. 



