THE POET GRAY 
include many special treatises and many narratives of travel. 
From Aristotle to Pliny, from Pliny to BufFon, Gray has gleaned 
the whole field. 
The second part of the first volume of the Systema has four 
hundred and eighty-five pages of text, or nine hundred and 
seventy of text and interleaving, of which less than twenty are 
without a note or some mark of reference, while most of them 
contain more than one note, often of great length. The fly-leaves 
at the beginning are occupied with a vocabulary. Termini Artis, 
and a list of Latin terms of colour with their English equivalents. 
The notes on Insects are frequently of special interest from the 
evidence they afford of personal observation, and from their full 
and minute descriptions drawn from direct study of the living 
creatures. These descriptions in many cases enter into greater de- 
tail than those given by Linnaeus, and furnish proof of Gray's 
excellence as a descriptive naturalist. It appears from them that 
he had a collection of insects, and was on the watch for speci- 
mens wherever he might be. Such entries are frequent as ^^ speci- 
men nostrum;'''' ^^noster, sub fine mensis Junii in solidaghie cap- 
tus;''"' ^'ad Hartlepool in arena maris sub saxo inveni;''"' ^^mense 
Junio cepi in pratis juxta Maryhbone C "in pratis Chelseianis 
prope Thamesin mense Maio cepi;'''' ^^cepi in Hyde Park sub fine 
mensis Maii."" 
An almost complete record of the places where Gray stayed 
( 14 ) 
