RAY AND WILLUGHBY 129 



ent, immediately follow upon Three Catalogues of such 

 Trees, Shrubs and Herbs as grow in the Levant, 

 which are a very subordinate part of the book, and 

 the booksellers' preface claims no more than these three 

 catalogues as Ray's work, while the actual compilers of 

 the Collection are named on the title-page. Smith and 

 Walford, the publishers, published for Ray, and no 

 doubt employed him to make the catalogues. If they 

 had submitted their title-page to him in manuscript, he 

 would have found nothing to object to. The prominence 

 given to his name in printing may have been meant to 

 catch purchasers.-^ 



The account of Ray's own travels in Germany, Italy 

 and France is entitled Observations, topographical, 

 moral and physiological, made in a journey, dc, 

 8vo. Lond. 1673. 



ESTIMATE OF RAY 



Natural history unquestionably owes a great deal to 

 Ray. During his long and strenuous life he introduced 

 many lasting improvements — fuller descriptions, better 

 definitions, better associations, better sequences. He 

 strove to rest his distinctions upon knowledge of struc- 

 ture, which he personally investigated at every oppor- 

 tunity. No doubt he was old-fashioned in some things, 

 clinging for example to the retention of the cetaceans 

 among the fishes, and to the division of the flowering 

 plants into trees, shrubs and herbs, after it had become 

 clear to his mind that such concessions to usage were 

 scientifically indefensible. His greatest single improve- 

 ment was the division of the herbs into Monocotyledons 

 and Dicotyledons. 



Zoological and botanical systems owe comparatively 



1 Dcrham's Life explains the origin of the book. 

 I 



