142 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



wonderful structures they can reveal to us even when dead 

 and withered. 



Classification of Plants and Animals by Ray and 

 Willughby, 1693-1705. — We now come to the history of 

 two friends, which is in itself a pleasure to dwell upon, 

 even if they had not both been great men ; but which be- 

 comes much more interesting when we remember that it was 

 their love of the study of Nature which first brought them 

 together, and which made them inseparable, not only in life, 

 but in their works after death. 



John Ray, one of the greatest botanists of the seven- 

 teenth century, was born near Braintree, in Essex, in the 

 year 1628. Though only the son of a blacksmith, he re- 

 ceived a good education at the grammar school of the town, 

 and went afterwards to Cambridge, where he remained as a 

 tutor after he had taken his degree. Here one of his first 

 pupils was a Mr. Francis Willughby, of Middleton Hall, in 

 Warwickshire, a man seven years younger than himself, and 

 belonging to quite a different rank in society. These two 

 men, however, had one great interest in common — they were 

 both passionately fond of Natural History, and spent all their 

 spare time in studying it together. 



They soon found that the descriptions and classifications 

 of plants and animals which had been drawn up by earlier 

 naturalists were very imperfect, and they formed the project 

 of drawing up a complete classification of all known plants 

 and animals, describing them as far as they were able, and 

 arranging them in groups according to their different cha- 

 racters. Willughby undertook the birds, beasts, and fishes, 

 while Ray devoted himself chiefly to plants; but they worked 

 together in all the branches, and Ray, as we shall see, ended 

 by doing far more than his share of the work. 



