126 RAY AND SOME OF HIS FELLOW-WORKERS 



THE SYNOPSIS STIRPIUM 



is the first systematic account of British plants, the 

 first British flora in the modern sense of the word. 

 The old herbalists had included all the plants which 

 they could find, either in field or garden. William How 

 (Phytologia Britannica, 1650) restricted himself to 

 native species, but adhered to an alphabetical arrange- 

 ment, as did Ray in his Catalogus Plantarum Angliw 

 (1676). In the Synopsis the plants are arranged 

 according to his notion of their afiSnities, and he 

 scrupulously excluded doubtful natives. The Synopsis 

 soon became the manual of field-botanists, and the 

 model of all later floras. After Eay's death it was 

 re-edited by Dillenius (1724), and translated into 

 English by Wilson (1744). Hudson's Flora Anglica 

 (1762) was the first to adopt the Linnean arrangement 

 and rules. 



Ray gives no synoptic tables, and his book must have 

 been troublesome to work by. His "genera" are for 

 the most part what we should call families, or aggregates 

 of families. The smallest collections of species which he 

 recognises (our genera) are left undefined, nor do they 

 always receive distinctive names. Thus the clovers are 

 called Trifolium, but in another part of the book wood- 

 sorrel and buckbean receive the same name. 



Two examples of Ray's descriptions follow ; the 

 mixture of Latin and English is singular.^ 



"Erysimum latifolium Neapolitanum, Park. [Parkin- ^ 

 son], latifolium majus glabrum, C.B. [Caspar Bauhin]. 

 Irio Isevis Apulus Erucse folio, Col. [Columna]. 

 Smoother broad-leaved Hedge-Mustard. Circa Londinum 

 variis in locis ; as between the City and Kensington in 



^ As a rule, English is used only for the localities. 



