88 
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 
Authore Cliristophoro Merrett.” [Londini. Cave Pulleyn. 
1666.] It contains 8 Worcester records. Two are a 
cultivated Wheat and Barley ; a third is the Larkspur, 
simply quoted from the Pliytologia. The remaining five 
are— 
“ Beilis flore herbaceo globoso. In Mr. Selden’s Cops neer his house 
in Worcestershire. Mr. Morgan.” 
[Beilis perennis, L., probably a form without rays.) 
“Gentiana autumnalis flore albo, foliis longis augustis. In old 
Pastures on the north west of Church Lench, Wostershire, 
plentifully.” 
[Gentiana Amarella, L.) 
“ Lactuca sylv. laciniata minima. N. D. near Church Lench in 
Wostershire in great plenty.” 
[Probably Lactuca saligna, L.) 
“ Rosa sylv. odore flore duplici, Double Eglantine, G. 1270, invenitur 
duplici & triplici serie petalorum, in sepibus praesertim prope 
Wigorniam. Mr. Brown.” 
[Double Sweet Briar , Rosa rubiginosa, L., perhaps 
cultivated.) 
“ Rosa pimpinellse fol. fl. rubro. In some barren fields near Worster, 
Mr. Brown, and in a barren field at Church-lench four miles 
beyond Evesham in great plenty.” 
[Probably Rosa spinosissima, LA , 
The next step in the history introduces us to John Ray. 
This remarkable man was born at Black Notley, near 
Braintree, in Essex, in 1628, and died at the same place 
in 1705. He was educated at Braintree School, and at 
St. Catharine’s and Trinity, Cambridge, of which latter 
College he became a Fellow, Lecturer and Dean. In 166C 
he was ordained Deacon and Priest. In 1662 he was deprived 
of his Fellowship on his refusing to sign the declaration 
required by the Act of Uniformity. In 1667 he was made a 
Fellow of the Royal Society. Among his pupils at Trinity 
was Francis Willoughby, of Middleton Hall, Warwickshire, 
between Sutton Coldfield and Tamworth, whose second son 
was raised to the Peerage, by Queen Anne, under the title of 
Lord Middleton. Ray lived upon terms of close friendship 
with Francis Willoughby, was a frequent visitor at Middleton, 
and on Willoughby’s death in 1672, was appointed one of his 
Executors and Tutor to his sons. From 1675, or 1676, to 
Michaelmas, 1677 Ray lived at Sutton Coldfield and then 
removed into Essex, where he continued to his death.' 1 ' 
Of Ray’s numerous works in various departments of Natural 
History we need only concern ourselves with two, the 
* “ Memorials of John Ray.” Ray Society, 1846. 
