150 RAY. 



dried into a firm cake, or lump, without any serum 

 at all. 



" 6. That it then also, when dried, retained its keen 

 biting taste, as it does at this day, yet not so fierce : 

 Its colour is now of a yellowish green, yet very pale. 



" 7- This milk flows much faster from about the 

 outmost rimm, or part equivalent to the bark of 

 plants, than from the more inward parts, &c. 



" 8. I observed these mushromes even then, when 

 they abounded with milk (not to be endured upon 

 our tongues) to be exceeding full of ^^/-maggots ; 

 and the youngest and tenderest of them were very 

 much eaten by the small grey naked snail. 



" You can tell me what author describes this 

 mushrome, and what he titles it. 



" I have revised the History of Spiders, and added 

 this summer's notes. Also I have likewise brought 

 into the same method the land and fresh water 

 snails, having this year added many species found 

 in these northern lakes. And by way of Appendix, 

 I have describ'd all the shell-stones that I have any- 

 where found in England, having purposely viewed 

 some places in Yorkshire where there are plenty. 

 The tables of both I purpose to send you. I am not 

 so throughly stocked with sea-shells as I wish and 

 endeavour. I aim not at exoticks, but those of our 

 own shores. Concerning St Cuthberfs Beads, I 

 find 3 species of them in Craven : and this makes 

 it plain, that they have not been the back-bone of 

 any creature, because I find of them ramous and 

 branched like trees. 



« York, October 12, 1672.'* 



Soon after Mr Willughby's death, Mr Ray lost 



