CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 131 



here. This, wth due thanks for your many favours and 

 great kindness, is all at present from 



Sir, 

 Your affectionate friend and humble servant, 



John Ray. 



For Dr. Hans Sloane, at the 



Duchess of Albemarle's, iu Clerkenwell, London. 



Mr. Ray's Queries to Dr. Tankbed Robinson. 



1. Whether the bird called Macreuse [the Scoter, 

 Oidemia nip'ci] * at Paris be the Anas ardica of Cliisius, 

 or the Manks Puffin, or a species distinct from both, 

 perhaps a sort of Colymbus ? 



2. Whether the vapour ascending out of the earth, 

 and causing an appearance of boiling in a water called 

 the Boihng Fountain, at Peroul, near Montpellier, be 

 inflammable by the application of a hghted candle, &c., 

 as that is which causes the like phenomenon at Wigan, 

 in Lancashhe. 



3. Of what sort of moss they make then' cypress- 

 powder, and whether of more sorts than one, at 

 Montpellier ? Either bring a sample of it, or describe it 

 so exactly, that one may not mistake it. 



4. Whether the Chondrilla cceridea Cyani cajnhdis 

 \Catananclie ccsndea, Linn.] of Bauhinus, commonly 

 called Sesamoides, have natm'ally a full or double flower, 

 or only consisting of a pale or border of leaves, encircling 

 a thrum of small flowers, Avhich are vulgarly mistaken 

 for stamina ? 



The like query I would make about the Cichorium 

 pratense vesicarium \_Crepis vesicaria, Linn.] of Co- 

 lumna, which grows in the fields about Leghorn, as the 

 former does plentifully about Montpellier. 



5. Whether the Stcechas Citrina altera tenuifolia sive 

 Italica, J. B., be specifically distinct from the Stoec. 

 Citrina tenuifolia Narbo?iensis, J. I^. ? It grows plen- 

 tifully in the mountains of Ligm'ia as about Gavi, 



* Living on fish, Roman Catholics eat this duck on maigre days. 



