RAY. 



countries he vifited, is evident from the different editions of 

 his Catalogus Plantarum Anglia, and Synopjis Mdhod'ica Stir- 

 plum Brttannicdrum. 



All this while Mr. Ray continued to enjoy his fellow- 

 (liip, and to cultivate his Cambridge connexions ; but in 

 September l66z, his tranquillity was difturbed by the too 

 famous Bartholomew ad, by which 2000 confcientious 

 divines were turned out of their livmgs, and many fellows 

 of colleges deprived of their m lintenance, and means of lite- 

 rary improvement. Among the latter was the fubjeft of 

 our memoir, with thirteen honed men at Cambridge befides, 

 of whole names he has left us a lift. One of them, Dr. 

 Dillingham, was mailer of Emanuel college ; but Ray 

 was the only perfon of his own college who fuffered this 

 deprivation. The reader muft not fuppofe that he, or 

 perhaps any other perfon in this illuitrious catalogue, 

 was, in the leaft degree, deficient in attachment to the 

 doctrine or difciphne of the church of England, or that 

 they had taken the oath called the Solemn League and 

 Covenant ; which Ray certainly had neither taken nor ever 

 approved. They were required to fwear to the infamous 

 propofition, that the faid oath was not binding to thofe 

 who had taken it, and on this ground they confcientioufly 

 gave up their preferment. It is curious to read the apology 

 made for Ray to Dr. Dcrham, on this fubjeft, by a Mr. 

 Brokelby — " that he was at that time abfent from his college, 

 where he might have met with fatisfadlion to his fcruples ; 

 and was among fome zealous non-conformills, who too much 

 influenced him, by the addition of new fcruples. And we 

 may alfo afcribe fomewhat to the prejudice of education in 

 unhappy times." By this it appears, that the " fcruples" 

 of non-conformifts were mod favourable to the fanftity of 

 an oath ; and that the " unhappy times" alluded to, were 

 more advantageous to principle, than the golden days of 

 Charles II. ; whofe miniilers doubtlefs valued the obedience, 

 far more than the honefty, of any man ; nor is this tafte, by 

 any means, peculiar to them or their profligate maft.er. 



Mr. Ray, or, as he wrote his name, for a while, about 

 this period, Wray, having thus the world before him, made 

 an arrangement with Mr. Willughby for a tour on the 

 continent ; and in this plan two of his pupils were included, 

 Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, and Mr., afterwards fir Philip, Skip- 

 pon. They failed for Calais in April 1663, but being pre- 

 vented, by the ft.ate of political aff'airs, from profeeuting 

 their journey through France, they traverfed the Low 

 Countries, Germany, &c. proceeding by Venice into Italy ; 

 mofl: of whofe cities tliey vifited, either by fea or land ; 

 as well as Malta and Sicily ; and returned, by Switzerland, 

 through France, into England, in the fpring of 1666. Mr. 

 Willughby indeed feparated from the reft; of the party at 

 Montpellier, and vifited Spain. An ample account of their 

 obfervations was publiflied by Ray, in 1673, making a 

 thick 0(Savo volume. The travellers appear to have been 

 diligent and acute in every thing relative to pohtics, litera- 

 ture, natural biftory, mechanics, and philofophy, as well as 

 antiquities and other curiofities ; but in the fine arts they 

 aiTume no authority, nor difplay any confiderable tafl:e or 

 knowledge. Mr. Willughby's account of Spain makes a 

 part by itfelf ; and a rich critical catalogue of fuch plants, 

 not, for the mod part, natives of England, as were obferved 

 in this tour, concludes the volume. Haller gives to Ray 

 the credit of having difcovered feveral fpecies in Switzer- 

 land, previoufly not known as natives of that country. 



Ray palfed the fummer of 1666 partly at Black Notley, 

 and partly in Suflex, (ludying chiefly the works of Hook, 

 Boyle, Sydenham on Fevers, and the Philofophical Tranf- 

 adlions, " making few difcoveries," fays he, " fave of mine 



own errors." The following winter he was employed at 

 Mr. Willughby's, in arranging that gentleman's mufeum of 

 natural hiitory and coins, and in forming tables of plants 

 and animals for tlie ufe of Dr. Wilkins, in his famous work 

 on an Univerfal Charafter. He now alfo began to arrange 

 a catalogue of the Englilh native plants, which he himfelf 

 had gathered ; rather for his own ufe, than with any imme- 

 diate view of publication ; " at prefent," as he wrote to Dr. 

 Lifter, " the world is glutted with Dr. Merret's bungling 

 Pinax. I refolve never to put out any thing which is not 

 as perfeft as is poflible for me to make it. I wifh you 

 would take a little pains this fummer about grades, that fo 

 we might compare notes." The above refolution of our 

 author is, no doubt, highly commendable, but the world 

 has rather to lament that fo many able men have formed the 

 fame determination, at lead in natural Icience. If it were 

 univerfally adhered to, fcarcely any work would fee the 

 liglit ; for few can be fo fenfible of the defefts of any other 

 perfon's attempt to illullrate the works of nature, as a man 

 of tolerable judgment mud be of his own. This is efpe- 

 cially the cafe with thofe who, like Ray, direft their afpir- 

 ing views towards fydem, and philofophical theory. Hap- 

 pily he did net try this arduous path, till he had trained 

 himfelf by wholefome praftical difcipline, in obfervation 

 and experience. His firft botanical works aflumed the hum- 

 ble form of alphabetical catalogues. His and Mr. Wil- 

 lughby's labours in the fcrvice of bi(hop Wilkins, were in- 

 deed of a fyftematical defcription ; and accordingly the au- 

 thors themfelves were, more than any other perfon probably, 

 diflatisfied with their performance. They relaxed from 

 thefe labours in a tour of praftical obfervation through the 

 wed of England, as far as the Land's-End, in the fummer 

 of 1667, and returning by London, Mr. Ray was folicited 

 to become a Fellow of the Royal Society, into which 

 learned body he was admitted November yth. Being now 

 requeded by his friend Wilkins to tranflate the " Real Cha- 

 rafter" into Latin, he undertook, and by degrees accom- 

 pliflied, that arduoHS performance, depofiting his manu- 

 fcript in the library of the Royal Society, where it has ever 

 fince repofed. The following fummer was agreeably fpent, 

 in viilts to various literary friends, and in a folitary journey 

 to the north ; for his former companion Willughby, being 

 jud married, ilayed at home ; there Ray joined him in Sep- 

 tember 1668, and remained for mod part of the enfuing 

 winter and fpring. 



The feclufion and leifure of the country, with the con- 

 verfe and affidance of fuch a friend, were favourable to the 

 profecution of a new fubjefl of enquiry, which now drongly 

 attrafted the attention of our great naturalift, the theory of 

 vegetation. The firft dep of the two philofophers, in this 

 little-explored path, was an examination of the motion of 

 the fap in trees ; and the refult of their enquiries, communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society, appeared foon after in the Phi- 

 lofophical Tranfaftions. Their experiments clearly prove 

 the afcent of the fap through the woody part of the tree; 

 which is eafily detefted by boring the trunk, at different 

 depths, before the leaves are unfolded ; and they obferved 

 alio the mucilaginous nature of the flowing fap, " precipi- 

 tating a kind of white coagulum or jelly, which," fays Ray, 

 in a note preferved by Derham, " may be well conceived to 

 be the part which, every year, between bark and tree, turns 

 to wood, and of which the leaves and fruit are made. It 

 feems to precipitate more when the tree is jud ready to put 

 out leaves, and begins to ceafe dropping, than at its firft 

 bleeding." The accuracy of the leading fafts recorded by 

 thefe ingenious men, is confirmed by fubfequent obfervers, 

 who have further purfued the fame fubjeft, which is now 



fufficiently 



