CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 197 



last be brought to find the very plant itself and the place 

 where described at large in yoiu' book, my design in these 

 tables being only to give an idea of the ditt'erence of 

 plants by pictures (the representations of beings) rather 

 than by vi^ords (the representations of pictures). This I 

 submit to your censure before discovering it to others, 

 requesting your thoughts upon it ; for it is very possible, 

 that being so unknowing as I am in plants, I may frame 

 an image to myself of that, which, brought to the test, 

 wUl prove a mere chimera. If so, pray pardon my rash- 

 ness, and accept of my real desire of advancing know- 

 ledge. 



I think fit to communicate, that being this last autumn 

 at Bristol, in August the tide brought in floating some of 

 the vesiculiferous sea-wrack ; the bladders were some 

 filled with air, some with a slimy water, and in some I 

 found a round (as I suppose) seed, thinly dispersed in a 

 tenacious matter. They were somewhat smaller than 

 rape-seed, and of a brownish colour. This, if a new dis- 

 covery, may be farther prosecuted. Thus having already 

 troubled you with too large a letter, I beg leave to sub- 

 scribe myself, &c. 



London, April 5, 1688. 



Mr. Tho. Lawson to Mr. 'Ray* 



Mr. Ray, — Acetosa scutata repens, C. B. Acet. ro- 

 tundis. Westmerlandica Mor. \Oxyria reniformis, Hook], 

 by Buckbarrow Well, in Longsledale ; also on little 

 Harterfell Crag, copiose, Westmoreland. 



Adiant. petr. perpusillum, sc. \IIymenopliyllum tun- 



* Although the plants mentioned in this letter of Mr. Lawson may 

 be met with in Mr. Ray's books, yet there being many of the northern 

 plants put together in alphabetical order, with the places where they grow, 

 I thought it might be acceptable to the northern botanists to publish the 

 letter as I found it. — W. D[ekham.] 



