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 ^j/-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 Cuthbert's 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 



