BY DR. DERHAM. 



49 



Ray showed some gentle resentment of, in a reply he 

 made to Rivinus's letter; which was printed in 1696, 

 together with a dissertation concerning method, in which 

 he examines Monsieur Tournefort's, as well as Rivinus's 

 method ; who, in his ' Elements of Botany,' took frequent 

 occasion to carp at and run down Mr. Ray's method. 

 But, in the opinion of better judges than myself, Mr. Ray 

 hath sufficiently answered all their objections against his 

 method, and abundantly showed the imperfections and 

 weakness, both of Dr. Rivinus's method,* which was 

 taken from the number of petala in a flower, as also of 

 Monsieur Tournefort's,f which was taken from the form 

 and make of the flower. 



But this contentious way of writing was by no means 

 agreeable to Mr. Ray's sweet and peaceable nature, who, 

 as he loved all men, so desired to be at perfect peace and 

 unity with all ; and his uneasiness on this account, I find 



* See Letters, 



f Toumefort, Joseph Pitton de, was bom at Aix in Provence, on June 

 5tli, 1656. He studied medicine at Montpellier, where Magnol was then 

 professor. During his residence here, he acquired a taste for botany, and 

 made many excursions in the Cevennes, Pyrenees, and Catalonia. He after- 

 wards went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Pagon ; and in 

 1683, he was appointed assistant-professor at the Jardin du Roi, In 1688, 

 he was commissioned to travel through Spain and Portugal, and afterwards 

 through Holland and England. On his return, in 1692, he was made a 

 member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1700, he was appointed by the 

 government to travel through Greece and Asia Minor, in company with the 

 German physician, Gundelsheimer, and the painter Aubriet. He brought 

 home with him upwards of 1300 species of new plants. He died on the 

 28th day of November, 1708. Tournefort published several works on 

 botany, but the one demanding most notice is his ' Elemens de Botanique 

 ou methode pour connoitre les Plantes.' This was published at Paris in 

 1694, with 450 copper-plates. In this work he proposed a new arrange- 

 ment of the vegetable kingdom, founding his classes or orders upon the 

 presence or absence of the corolla, and using the form of the corolla, the 

 union of the calyx with the fruit and other points, as characters of secondary 

 value. This system was much more artificial than that of Ray, and called 

 forth on that account his criticisms. To these, Tournefort replied, in a 

 work, entitled ' De Optima Methodo Instituenda in Re Herbaria ad Sapien- 

 tem Yirum G. Sherardum Epistola, in qua respondetur Dissertationi D. Rah 

 de variis Plantarum Methodis,' Paris, 1697, 8vo. The ' Elemens' was re- 

 pubhshed in Latin by Tournefort, in 1700, under the title ' Institutiones 

 Rei Herbarise.' It contained much additional matter, with an introduction, 

 containing a history of botany, in which he speaks very highly of the labours 

 of Ray. 



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