[ 45 ° ] 
diately, as more expreffive of Refped both to your- 
felf, and to that very Honourable and Learned 
Society, to which you are fo nearly related. And 
fmce the Draught of what I judged fit to fend the 
afore-mentioned Author, (and which I have chofen 
to fupprefs) I have endeavoured to get fome further 
Light into the Affair, by a Converfation with my 
worthy Friend Dr. S.Ttale of Braintree , (well known 
to feveial of the Virtuofi, and one of whofe inge- 
nious Letters I find publifhed in Bhil. Tranf. N°444-) 
who fully concurs with me in his Sentiments, as to the 
Subject of this Letter. In his well-furnifhcd Bota- 
nic Library, I met with feveral things which are 
Dejiderata in my own much meaner one, that greatly 
contributed towards the Elucidation of what has been 
ftrangely obfcured by an odd and unaccountable Com- 
plication or Accumulation of Miftakes, grounded upon 
Narratives in which there feem to me to be diverfe 
Inconfiftencies, and Mifreprefentations of Matters of 
Fad, through Inadvertency or Lapfe of Memory, or 
Anachronifms, by which my once very dear Friend 
and kind Conefpondent, Mr. Ray , (whofe Name 
and Memory muft ever be precious to all Lovers of 
folid Learning) was himfelf led into a Miftake (and 
became the innocent Occafion of leading others into 
the fame) about the laft-mentioned Vegetable, which 
he took to be the Star of the Earth , mentioned by 
Grey , as a fovereign Remedy againft the Bite of a 
Mad-Dog 5 but was afterwards convinced, that it was 
not fo, as will evidently appear from what follows. 
In which I have done what in me lies to get to the 
Bottom of the Matter, and to extricate it out of that 
Maze 
