182
HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
Dale's specimen, labelled as in this extract, is in the British
Museum Herbarium and is Statice rariflora Drej. He first
recognised it in 1700 and in Ray's Historia Plantarum, vol. iii.
(1704), p. 247, it is recorded, for the first time, in the words,
"Waltonae vico in Essexia non procul ab Harvico portu prope
Molendinum copiosum invenit D. Dale nobisque communicavit,"
Thus, though the discrimination of 5. occidentalis would seem to
have been the work of Doody,36 that of 5. rariflora is clearly that
of his friend and correspondent Dale.
We have, or have had, four forms of Statice in the county, S.
limonium L., or, as perhaps for clearness we ought to term it S.
behen Drej.37; its variety pyramidalis Syme, formerly known as S.
serotina Syme ; S. rariflora Drej. ; and S. auriculaefolia Vahl., var.
occidentalis (Lloyd). These are represented by ten specimens in
the British Museum Herbarium : S. limonium by five, viz. (1)
Dale's, labelled "About Maldon. An Limonium medium
Anglicum Lob. Illustr. go. Park. 1234. Limonium maritimum
majus alterum serotinum Narbonense Hort. Reg. Par. Schol.
Bot. 6" ; (2) Sir John Hill's, from "salt-marshes near South
Bamfleet" ; and three of Edward Forster's, from "near
Maldon," "St. Osith," and "Purfleet" ; var. pyramidalis Syme,
by specimens of Edward Forster's from Maldon and "the field
near the Hotel at Purfleet" ; S. rariflora by Dale's Walton
specimen and one of Forster's from Maldon ; and 5. auriculaefolia,
var. occidentalis by one of Sir John Hill's from "Candy [sic]
Island in Essex on the farther side of the Island near the Ale-
house." As Gibson appends to Ray's Harwich record of this
last-mentioned form the note "Probably now lost" and does
not mention Canvey Island, this latter locality must be re-
searched. It is also by no means improbable that S. reticulata
L., not yet recorded for the county, may occur.
In the Illustrationes there are eight or nine Essex records,
five of which had been anticipated in Parkinson's Theatrum,
whilst one cannot readily be identified. They are, I believe
Agrostis pumila L.
Brassica oleracea L.
Statice limonium L.
Silene anglica L.
Mentha pulegium L.
Lomaria spicant Desv. 
and Lathyrus sylvestris L.
56 Samuel Doody (1656-1706), keeper of Chelsea Garden, 1692-1706. See Britten and
Boulger, Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists.
37 See A. Bennetti Journ. Bot. 1894, pp. 365-8.