CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 57 



Mr. Lister's Answer to the foregoing Letter of Mr. Weay. 



My dear Friend, — The beginning of May I returned 

 an answer to both your last letters to me, and likewise 

 inclosed the table of spiders you desired of me. They 

 were sent by the post to London, and I hope did not 

 miscarry ; however, I cannot be satisfied concerning them 

 until I hear from you, and therefore I have sent you this 

 billet by Wollarton gardener from Nottingham. 



I cannot tell what to add, but that 1 intend you an 

 account of my simpling here before or about autumn. 

 Yet, because some plants in your catalogue now in print- 

 ing stand upon my parole, concerning the one of them I 

 was abundantly satisfied, having found it in that plenty 

 above Skipton, and in the beck from thence. And as for 

 Valeriana grceca [Polemonium cceruleum, Linn.], I have 

 found that also in an unquestionable place this last week, 

 both with a white flower, and also a blue one, viz. under 

 Maulam Coze,* a place so remarkable that it is one of the 

 wonders of Craven. It grows there on both sides the 

 spring in great tufts, and if the Catalogue be not yet 

 printed ofi", I could wish that this place might be added 

 to the former. I have found many plants near to me 

 which I will reserve to another opportunity, not wilHng 

 to make this more than a billet. 



Carleton, June 4, 1670. 



Dr. HuLSE to Mr. Wray. 



Sir, — As to my observations of spiders projecting 

 their threads, take them thus. I have seen them shoot 

 their webs three yards long before they begin to sail, 

 and then they will (as it were) fly away incredibly swift ; 

 which phenomenon doth somewhat puzzle me, seeing 

 oftentimes the air doth not move a quarter so fast as they 



* [Tliis plant still grows at Malliam Cove in the spot mentioned by 

 Lister.— C. C. B.] 



