180 
The Life and Work of John Ra;/, and 
whilst Ray’s list, in which neither cryptogams nor grasses 
were as yet numerous, only distinguishes 1050; but, whilst 
many of the supposed species of How and Merrett have never 
been identified, those of Ray are well known to all botanists 
who have taken the trouble to investigate the treasures of the 
Sloane Herbarium in the British Museum. Though only 
alphabetically arranged, this Catalogue must have superseded 
all others. 
Without stopping to notice all the short papers contributed 
by Ray from time to time to the Royal Society’s * Trans¬ 
actions,’ it is interesting to note that he expressed his 
disbelief in the then prevalent opinion of spontaneous 
generation. 
In the autumn of 1671 he started for another tour in the 
north, taking with him Thomas Willisel, an uneducated man, 
who was, however, of great use not only to Ray, but to many 
of the other naturalists of the day, from his skill as a collector. 
But a few months later an unexpected event altered the 
whole tenour of the naturally unsensational life of a student 
such as Ray, viz., the death of his young friend Willughby, 
then only in his thirty-seventh year, from a fever, in July, 
1672; and not many months later, in November, Ray lost 
another great friend in Bishop Wilkins. His friendship for 
his pupil Willughby had always been of the most cordial 
character; it has, in fact, but one parallel in the history of 
science, and that a curiously close one, first pointed out by 
Dr. Lankester, the friendship of Linnaeus for the ill-fated 
Artedi, who was drowned at the age of thirty. Both young 
men curiously left works upon Ichthyology, which were pub¬ 
lished by their surviving friend; but, in the words of Sir 
J. E. Smith, “ from the affectionate care with which Ray has 
cherished the fame of his departed friend, we are in danger 
of attributing too much to Willughby, and too little to him¬ 
self.” Willughby bequeathed to his friend the care and 
education of his two sons, Francis and Thomas, the youngest 
of whom alone survived to manhood, becoming Lord Middle- 
ton. There was also a daughter, who became Duchess of 
Cliandos, and the eldest child was then under four years old. 
