466 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



for, 1st, who would not be delighted to see an arborescent 

 fern, of a single woody stem, straight and undivided, 

 bearing leaves only at the top like a palm-tree ; or, 2dly, 

 capillaries of almost all kinds creeping on trees, or rocks, 

 or the ground, with wires after the manner of strawber- 

 ries ; or, 3dly, capillaries, the tip of whose leaves turning 

 downwards, and touching the earth, takes root and puts 

 forth a new plant, so propagating their kind ; or, 4thly, 

 capillaries putting forth from the middle stem of their 

 leaves two shoots, each bearing a spike of flowers and 

 seeds ? I confess, when I first saw the author's stock of 

 dried plants collected in Jamaica, and some of the Caribee 

 islands, I was much surprised, and even astonished, at the 

 number of the capillary kind, not thinking there had been 

 so many to be found in both the Indies. I might say 

 much of the other generas, but I refer the reader to the 

 book itself. 



Secondly. The author in this Catalogue hath done 

 great service to at least the inferior ranks of herbarists, in 

 reducing and cutting short the number of species, which 

 were unnecessarily multiplied. For observing that those 

 who have published Itineraries, or descriptions of the 

 several parts of America, for want of sufficient skill in 

 botanies, and not being versed in describing plants, have 

 given us such lame, imperfect, and obscure descriptions of 

 such as they took notice of, and of the same tree or herb 

 many times under different names, that the compilers of 

 general histories of plants meeting with these descriptions, 

 and having no other knowledge of such plants than what 

 they derive from them, have i-epeated one and the same 

 species, once, twice, thrice, (nay, some great authors some- 

 times even nine times) over, for different kinds. Now the 

 number of plants being in natm-e so vast, it is pity to add 

 to it more than there are in nature, making two or three 

 of one, thereby both deterring and confounding the 

 learner. To clear up these difficulties, and to reduce all 

 to their proper kinds, no man be well qualified but he 

 that hath a comprehensive knowledge of such plants as 



