126 RAY AND SOME OF HIS FELLOW-WORKERS 



THE SYNOPSIS STIEPIUM 



is the first systematic account of Britisli plants, the 

 first British flora in the modern sense of the word. 

 The old herbalists had included all the plants which 

 they could find, either in field or garden. William How 

 {Phytologia Britannica, 1650) restricted himself to 

 native species, but adhered to an alphabetical arrange- 

 ment, as did Ray in his Catalogus Plantarmftr-AnglioB 

 >^676). In the Synopsis the plsdlte are arranged 

 "TcccDrding—to his notion oLjJieir affinities, and he 

 scrupulously excludec^^iitJubtful natives. The Synopsis 

 soon became the Manual of field-botanists, and the^ 

 model of all later floras. After Ray's death it was 

 re-edited by Dillenius (1724), and translated iruto 

 English by Wilson (1744). Hudson's Flora Anglica 

 (1762) was the first to adopt the Linnean arrangement 

 and rules. 



Ray gives no synoptic tables, and his book must have 

 been troublesome to work by. His "genera" are for 

 the most part what we should call families, or aggregates * 

 of families. The smallest collections of species which he_ 

 recognises (our genera) are left undefined, nor do they 

 always receive distinctive names. Thus the clovers are 

 called Trifolium, but in another part of the book wood- 

 sorrel and buckbean receive the same name. 



Two examples of Ray's descriptions follow ; the 

 mixture of Latin and English is singular.^ 



"Erysimum latifolium Neapolitanum, Park. [Parkin- 

 son], latifolium majus glabrum, C.B. [Caspar Bauhin]. 

 Irio Isevis Apulus Erucse folio. Col. [Columna]. 

 Smoother broad-leaved Hedge-Mustard. Circa Londinum 

 variis in locis ; as between the City and Kensington in 



^ As a rule, English is used only for the localities. 



