BY DR. DERHAM. 



47 



and those in the Leyden Hbrary, and, lastly, the whale 

 kind about Scotland ; to which I presumed, myself, to 

 add the figures, and some small account of some birds 

 and fishes, which the skilful Mr. Petiver* importuned me 

 to insert. 



When Mr. Ray had dispatched his ' Synopsis Metho- 

 dica Avium et Piscium,' he thought he had finished his 

 labours, and began to be much pleased with the thoughts 

 of it : but at the same time ' Rauwolfi"s Travels' f were 

 thought worthy of being translated into English and 

 printed ; the occasion of which was, that Rauwolff* being 

 a very judicious, as well as curious traveller, and having 

 written his travels in High Dutch, and his book being 

 grown very scarce. Sir Hans Sloane, Captain Hatton, and 

 some other considerable virtuosos procured the book from 

 the Royal Society (few besides having it), and got Mr. 

 Staphorst to translate it into English ; but it not being 

 thought proper to trust the matter wholly to him, it was 

 agreed to get Mr. Ray to revise and correct the transla- 

 tion, and to add a catalogue of such plants as grow in 

 the places where Rauwolff" had been ; and accordingly 

 Mr. Ray drew up such a catalogue for the purpose, viz., 

 of Grecian and Syrian plants, and those of Egypt and 

 Crete ; which, with ' Rauwolff"s Travels,' and some other 

 scarce and curious tracts, were printed in 1693. 



Having mentioned this ' Catalogue of Eoreign Plants,' 

 it reminds me to take notice next of his ' Sylloge Stir- 



* Petiver, James, lived in London at tlie latter end of the 17tli and be- 

 ginning of the 18th century. He was a member of the Apothecaries' Com- 

 pany, and devoted himself with much zeal to increasing the collection of plants, 

 and improving the garden which was held by that body at Chelsea. He 

 made a large collection of plants and drawings of plants, which are still in 

 the British Museum. He published many papers in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions' on various departments of natural history. These, with other 

 works, were collected and published after his death, with the title ' Jac. 

 Petiver Opera omnia ad Historiam Naturalem spectantia," London, 1764, 

 fol. He died in 1718. 



f Rauwolff, Leonard, was a native of Augsburg, and died in Hungary in 

 1606. He travelled in the east and made a collection of plants. The 

 travels referred to formed the first volume of a work published by E-ay, 

 under the title 'A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages,' 2 vols. 8vo. 

 London, 1693. 



