HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 
89 
“ Catalog us Plantarum Anglia," first edition 1670, second 
edition 1677 ; and the “ Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britan- 
nicarum ,” first edition 1690, second edition, 1696. Of the 
last named work, a third edition was published after Ray’s 
death in 1724, under the Editorship of Dr. J. J. Dillenius, at 
that time Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford. 
The “ Catalogus Plantarum Anglia , 1670, contains only 
one Worcester record, but it is one of special interest. At 
p. 90 we read— 
“ Cynoglossa folio virenti, J. B. 
Cynoglossum minus folio virente, Ger. 
Cynoglossum semper virens, G. B. Park. 
The lesser Hounds-tongue. 
. . . also in some shady lanes near Worcester” 
The record occurs in the same words in the edition of 1677. 
We must now leave Ray for a time, in order to make 
acquaintance with the earliest Worcester Botanist, in the 
person of Mr. Edmund Pitt, of that city, Apothecary and 
Alderman. 
In the “ Philosophical Transactions ” for April, May, and 
June, 1678, No. 169, p. 978, we read as follows:— 
“ Extract of a letter from Mr. Edmund Pitt, Alderman of 
Worcester, a very knowing Botanist, concerning the Sorbus 
Pyriformis. 
Last year I found a rarity growing wild in a forest of 
Worcester. It is described by L’Obelius under the name of 
Sorbus Pyriformis, also by Mathiolus upon Dioscorides, And 
by Bauliinus, under the name of Sorbus Procera. And they 
agree that in France, Germany and Italy, they are commonly 
found. But neither These nor any of our own countrymen as 
Gerard, Parkinson, Johnson, How, nor those Learned Authors 
Merret or Ray, have taken notice of its being a native of 
England. Nor have any of our English Writers so much as 
mentioned it. Saving that Mr. Lyte, in his translation of 
Dodonaeus, describes it under the name of the Sorb Apple. But 
saith no more of the place, but that it growetli in Dutch-Land. 
It resembles the Ornus or Quicken-Tree ; only the Ornus 
bears the Flowers and Fruit at the end, This on the sides of 
the Branch. Next the sun the Fruit hath a dark red blush : 
and is about the bigness of a small Juneting Pear. In 
September so rough as to be ready to strangle one. But being 
then gathered and kept till October, they eat as well as any 
Medlar. Thus far the Letter. 
Q. Whether a Verjuyce made of this Fruit, either ground 
with Crabs or Grapes, or if plentiful alone, would not, being 
