162 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. JuLY, 1890. 
no woman save George Eliot in whom there has been this union of 
high philosophical capacity with extensive acquisition Unquestion¬ 
ably her subtile intelligence would have done much in furtherance of 
rational thought; and her death has entailed a serious loss. 
While I say this, however, I cannot let pass the occasion for 
remarking that in her case, as in other cases, the mental powers so 
highly developed in a woman are in some measure abnormal, and 
involve a physiological cost which her feminine organisation will not 
bear without injury more or less profound. 
I am glad to hear that you propose to publish another series of her 
Essays, and am quite willing that you should, if you wish, include in 
it the foregoing expressions of my admiration. 
I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours, 
HERBERT SPENCER. 
R. Lewins, Esq., M.D. 
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 
BY WM. MATHEWS, M.A. 
(Continued from page 206, Vol. XII.) 
The second edition of “A Descriptive History of the 
Town of Evesham,” by George May, a printer and book¬ 
seller in that town, was published in 1845. It contains, 
pp. 419-25, a list of plants, of aquatic and land shells, 
and of fossils, bearing the collective title of “ Gleanings in 
Natural History within the neighbourhood of Evesham,” 
for which the author, p. 415, acknowledges his indebtedness 
“ to the Rev. David Davis, late of Evesham; to Miss 
Strickland, late of Cracombe ; to Mr. Herbert New of Eve¬ 
sham ; to Mr. Gibbs of Offenliam.” 
The catalogue of “ Characteristic and Rare Plants in the 
Vicinity,” which is attributed to Mr. Herbert New, contains 
141 species. Many of these are interesting plants, but the 
catalogue affords no certain addition to the Flora of the 
county. The two following entries are worthy of notice :— 
*f Orobanche elatior. Tall Broom Rape. Fields of clover about the 
villages of Moor aud Wyre. It is doubtful what is intended here. 
Orobanche elatior is 'parasitical upon Centaurea Scabiosa, Orobanche 
minor upon clover. The same doubt arises in the record of O. elatior 
given by Mr. Edwin Lees in his “ Flora of the Malvern Hills.” See 
“Mid. Nat.,” Vol. XII., p. 183. 
*f Thymus Nepeta ( Calamintha Nepeta). Lesser Calamint. Shrub¬ 
bery, Fladbury Rectory. A very doubtful record. See Lees, 
“Mid. Nat., Vol. XI., p. 279.” 
The catalogue above mentioned is, so far as I have been 
able to ascertain, the last published list of Worcester plants 
