150 
most accurate, and has been made the basis of all our 
Ploras. Eay examined every plant with the greatest care, 
and his works remain a monument of his profound research 
and great intelligence. In neither edition of his Catalogue,* 
or of his Synopsis^ of British Plants, is our Blower men- 
tioned. Neither did any other botanist speak of it as 
growing in England until the time of Hudson. Hudson 
does not allude to it in his first edition, published in 1762. 
In 1778 a second edition was issued, in which a description 
was given in Latin, of which the following is a translation. — 
Tom. II. Page 377. 
‘‘LOBELIA.” 
“ Calyx five-cleft. Corolla monopetalous (consisting of a 
single petal) irregular. Capsule inferior of two or three 
cells.” 
Page 378. 
“ 1. Lobelia Dortmanna.” 
“ 2. Lobelia Urens. A Lobelia with a stalk nearly erect ; 
with the lowermost leaves somewhat round, notched, with 
the upper lance-shaped serrated, with the flowers in 
clusters.” 
Hudson next mentions that it was noticed as growing in 
Erance by Morison, in his Universal History of Plants, 
published at Oxford, in three parts, with large folio plates,^ 
in the year 1680. He quotes the words of Morison, part II, 
page 467, which were also written in Latin. 
“A Eapunculus with a vaulted corolla growing at Blois 
or Sologne in Erance, with a smaller blue flower.” 
He next quotes from another book of Morison, and from 
books of three other authors besides, in which it is designated 
“The stinging Eapuntium of Sologne.”t viz: — Morison’s 
* Catalogns plantarum Anglise, a.d. 1670, and 1677. ^ Synopsis Methodica Stir- 
pium Britannicarum, a.d. 1690, 1696, and 1724. bA friend lias seen the plate 
containing the root, stem, and flower of Lobelia Urens, as published in this old 
book, in the British Museum, and pronounces it a perfect counterpart of the plant 
which grows at Kilmington. c The garden attached to the Castle at Blois was 
planted by Henry lY. Morison, an Englishman, having followed the disastrous 
fortunes of Charles 1. published a catalogue of the plants of this garden, which had 
acquired considerable celebrity. Its title was, Hortus Begins Blesensius, or Hortus 
K. Blesensis. Londin. 1669. He afterwards published the work first quoted by 
Hudson, The Universal History of Plants. 
t Sologne is a parish of Blois. Its church is the largest in the town, and was 
rebuilt by Louis XIY, who converted it into a Cathedral. 
