298 BRITISH BIRDS. 



vented a " method of Birds " which Avas freely used by 

 Ray " in the divisions and characteristic notes of the 

 genera." In 1676 Ray left Middleton Hall, his two young 

 pupils having ceased to be under his tuition, and removed 

 to Falborne Hall, near Black Notley, the residence of 

 Mr, Edward Bullock, to whose son Ray probably acted 

 as tutor, and to whom he dedicated the " Stirpium 

 Europeanarum .... Sylloge " in 1694. 



In 1678 Elizabeth Ray, the naturahst's mother, died, 

 and Ray then took up his abode at her house on 

 " Dewlands," in Black Notley, where, said he, " I intend, 

 God willing, to settle for the short pittance of time I have 

 yet to live in this world." Ray now settled down to un- 

 interrupted work, and in 1682 published his " Methodus 

 Plantarum nova," in which he proposed a 



" new method of classifying plants, which when altered and 

 amended as it subsequently was by himself at a later period, 

 unquestionably formed the basis of that method which under 

 the name of the system of Jussieu is universally received at 

 the present day." 



In addition to his own numerous labours Ray also 

 continued to deal with the mass of material left to him 

 by his friend, Francis Willughby, and in 1686 he published 

 the " Historia Piscium," 1 vol. folio, which " he had 

 extracted out of Mr. Willughby's papers, revised, supplied, 

 methodized and fitted for the press." This Ichthyology 

 was, by the assistance of Bishop. Fell, printed at Oxford, 

 the Royal Society defraying the expense. The " History 

 of Fishes " was, as Ray laments in a letter to his friend, 

 Dr. Tancred Robinson, far from being as complete as it 

 should have been, most of the notes which he and 

 Willughby had made in the course of their travels having 

 been mislaid.* 



It is here quite impossible to enumerate all the works 

 which came year after year from Ray's pen ; a list of 

 them will be found in the " Memorials of Ray " (p. 111). 



* This refers to their joint notes ; of Willughby's notes Ray 

 writes " it is almost impossible to procure a sight of them." 



