128 RAY AND SOME OP HIS FELLOW-WORKERS 



also the capillary submerged leaves of Slum and 

 Sagittaria, which easily escape notice. We are told 

 that lycopodium powder was used in the manufacture 

 of fireworks, the ashes of the female fern for scouring 

 cloth, and kelp for glass-making. 



EAY'S ENGLISH PEOVEEBS 



In the grave and laborious life of John Ray we find 

 very few indications that he knew how to amuse him- 

 self His travels, for instance, are relentlessly instructive. 

 Some little idle time, as he would no doubt have reckoned 

 it, he bestowed upon a Collection of English Proverbs 

 (1670), and we may hope that his wrinkles were now 

 and then relaxed as he wrote down such sayings as 

 these : — 



" Grantham gruel, nine grits and a gallon of water." ^ 



" Stay, quoth Stringer, when his neck was in the 

 halter."^ 



" Cut off" the head and tail, and throw the rest 

 away." ^ 



" Put a miller, a weaver and a tailor in a bag and 

 shake them ; the first that comes out will be a thief" * 



THE BOOK CALLED "EAY'S TEAVELS" 



Library catalogues reckon as one of Ray's works a 

 Collection of curious Travels and Voyages (2 vols., 

 8vo. Lond. 1693), with which, I believe, he had little 

 to do. Comparison with Belon's Observations des 

 plusieurs singularitez, &c. first led me to suspect that 

 Ray could not have written this meagre and unintelli- 

 gent summary. The title-page seems to announce Ray 

 as the author, but this is a mere matter of typography. 

 The words — " By John Ray, F.R.S.," which are promin- 



^P. 319. 2p_ 82. 3 p. 346. <P. 85. 



