182 RAY. 



The principal authorities for his life and writ- 

 ings are, the Select Remains just mentioned; Dr 

 Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany; 

 the article Ray, in Rees' Cyclopaedia, by Sir James 

 Edward Smith ; and that by Cuvier and Du 

 Petit-Thouars, in the Biographic Universelle. In 

 the two latter, his botanical and zoological la- 

 bours are carefully recorded ; and from the former 

 we learn, in conclusion, that " his hand-writ- 

 ing was peculiarly fair and elegant;" which has 

 been the case with few of the more distinguished 

 naturalists. His portraits are not numerous, but 

 there is one in oil, taken at an advanced period 

 of his life, remaining in the British Museum ; a 

 miniature, in the possession of Dr John Sims, 

 having been engraved in the first volume of the 

 Annals of Botany, published in 1805 ; and two 

 prints, the one by Elder, the other by Vertue, 

 from a picture by Faithorne, being prefixed to the 

 third edition of the Synopsis, and to the Historia 

 Plantarum. We may add that, in the fifteenth 

 number of the Gallery of Portraits, published under 

 the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion 

 of Useful Knowledge, is a beautiful engraving by 

 IMeyer of the painting in the British Museum. 



In the likeness of Ray the phrenologist will look 

 in vain for indications of those intellectual faculties 

 which are displayed in his writings. The forehead 

 is contracted in all its dimensions ; so as to form a 

 direct contrast to that of Cuvier, another naturalist 

 of equal industry and zeal, but perhaps of not more 

 comprehensive mind. 



