94 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



book called ' Polygraphice,' c. 12, is another way, viz. — 

 " Pirst take the leaf, and gently bruise the ribs and veins 

 on the back side of it ; afterwards wet it with linseed oil, 

 and then press it hard upon a piece of clean white paper, 

 and so you shall have the perfect figure of the leaf." 



As anything else occurs which may be worthy your 

 knowledge, I shall give you information. Some remarks 

 about insects in the Philosophical Transactions bring to 

 my memory what I read in ' New-England's Memorial,' 

 1633 : "Plymouth was visited with an infectious fever. 

 The spring before this sickness, there was a numerous 

 company of flies, which were like, for bigness, unto wasps, 

 or humble-bees. They came out of little holes in the 

 ground, and did eat up green things, and made such a 

 constant yelling noise, as made all the woods ring of 

 them," p. 90. 



Wrentham, Peb. 10, 167J. 



Mr. E,AY to Dr. Lister. 



Dear Sir, — I thank you for the account you sent of 

 the Bret [the Brill — RJiombus vidcjaris^^^ and Turbut 

 [Bhofiibus maxivms]. By what you write of the Bret, I 

 perceive that what they call Bret in Lincolnshire and 

 Yorkshire, and 1 beheve also in all the east part of Eng- 

 land, is the Turbut of the west country, where the name 

 Bret is not known ; and I believe the Halibut yilippo- 

 glossus vulgarisW of the west is the northern and eastern 

 Turbut. And I would fain know how your Halibut and 

 Turbut differ ; for if there be another fish of the make 

 and bigness of yom^ turbut, it is a stranger to me. Our 

 common dictionaries english RJiombus a Turbut; but 

 your Bret answers better the figure so called than your 

 Turbut doth. 



* Our Brill is soaietimes called the Pearl, on account of the small white 

 pearl-like spots on the upper surface. The term bret means spotted, 

 f On our N. E. coast the Halibut is called aTurbot. 



