115 
Observations made on Natural History in the Southern 
Provinces of Prance, in the year 1739, page 131. 
Lastly he brings forward a passage from Caspar Bauhin’s 
work, published at Basle, in Switzerland, in the year 1674, 
in which it is described as “A draba with a blue flower, 
having a vaulted corolla.” 
Hudson concludes his account thus, — 
In English stinging. Habitat in mountainous meadows. 
jAove Shute hill, between Axminster and Honiton. Mr. 
Newbery.”* * * § 
Thus it appears that the flower was mentioned before the 
time of Eay, and by Bay himself as being found wild near 
Blois, in France, or as it is otherwise described, in the fields 
of Sologne. Indeed, in Morison’s work, it is said to grow 
there “ in all directions in moist heath-fields and old woods, 
and also in other parts of France towards Poitiers. ”t The 
whole plant ” he remarked, is very hot, especially its root ; 
when chewed, it pricks and stings the tongue. It is wrongly 
called by Caspar Bauhin, a Draba with a Wue vaulted flower, 
for it has no similarity to a Draba, the species of which 
have a pouch or silicule.”J 
As Hudson first described it as an English plant in 1778, 
and quotes as his authority Mr. Newbery, it is probable 
that Mr. Newbery discovered it between 1762 and 1778. 
At this time Mr. Newbery lived at Heathstock, in the 
parish of Stockland, and as he was a noted herbalist, and 
had the reputation of knowing every plant of the neigh- 
bourhood, was likely to notice the flower when journeying 
to Axminster. Polwhele says,§ “The late Mr. Newbery 
was well known (particularly in Devonshire) as a botanist. 
Botany indeed was the only pursuit in which he was con- 
spicuous.” The same writer also remarks^ on the habitat 
* Mr. Newbery’s Christian name was William. D. before Newbery in the Latin 
text stands for Dominus, Mr. 
t “ Towards Poitiers is taken from Morison’s other work, Hist. Plant. Univers. 
where he gives a similar account of the Lobelia. 
X Tota planta percalida est, praecipue ejus rato ; masticata linguam urendo pun- 
git. Crescit in humidis ericetis, passim inagro Soloniensi alibique in Gallia. Male 
a C^paro Bauh. in pin. pag. 110, collucatur pro draba flore caeruleo galateo, quum 
nihil habet ahinitatis cum siliquosa draba, cujus draba est species. 
Hortus Eegius Blesensis, Auctus, 
Auctore Eob. Morison. 
Londini, 1G69, 
§ History of Devon. 181 n. a.-d. 1797. a Ibid, p. 93. 
