60 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
Sarah Finch, £40, towards her better support and subsistence 
while sh( lives,” desiring her, on her death, to bequeath any 
unexpended portion of it to her (Mrs. Dale’s) sisters, Rebecca 
and Jane Finch, to whom also she leaves £80 each, appointing 
them her sole joint executors. 
Dele’s botanical work (the chief occupation, other than 
professional, of his life) has been dealt with already by Prof. 
G. S. Boulger. From the labels on the plants in Dale’s Her¬ 
barium, now in the British Museum, 62 Prof. Boulger has been 
able almost to construct a Life of Dale, 63 following him in 
his occasional journeys about England, his visits to London 
(chiefly late in life), and his many short expeditions to Harwich, 
Sudbuiy. and other places in the vicinity, undertaken, no doubt, 
partly with professional, and partly with botanical, objects. 
That Dale owed his interest in botany directly to his personal 
intimacy with Ray has been brought out clearly by Prof, 
Boulger, and Dale himself fully acknowledged his indebted¬ 
ness. 64 On the other hand, the pupil was able, as time went 
■on, to render very great services to the master, in the way of 
collecting and observing plants ; and Ray, in many of his 
works, acknowledges fully his indebtedness to Dale in this 
respect, speaking of him, even as early as 1686, as “ my friend 
and neighbour.” 65 Dale’s standing as a botanist may be judged, 
to some extent, fiom the fact that he was one of the seventeen 
Englishmen to whom a plate (pi. 96) in Michaelis’ Nova Genera 
Plantaram (1729) is dedicated. The author, a poor but learned 
man, had induced 193 botanists throughout Europe (including 
the 17 English) to support him by subscribing for the engraving 
of plates for his w'ork, each plate being then dedicated to a 
subscriber. He had, no doubt, approached Dale through 
Dr. William Sherard. of Oxford. 66 
But Dah’s scientific interests extended to much more than 
Botany merely ; for he took a practical and intelligent interest 
in the study of many branches of Nature. 
Thus, on 8th March 1692-3 (seven years before the publication 
of the work on English Mineral Springs by Dale’s friend and 
62 See post, p. 68. 
63 See Journ. of Botany, xxi. (1883), pp. 193-197 and 225-231. 
64 See Essex Naturalist, xvii., pp. 157-158. 
65 Historia Plantarum, 3 vols. fo. (1686-1704). 
66 See Miss G. Lister, in Essex Nat., xviii., pp. 1-2 ; also Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc., 1912, 
PP- 45 - 47 - 
