224
HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
Essexia plurimam observavi circa Boreham, Terling, Heveningham, & alibi.
[Tilia platyphyllos Scop.]
"Trifolium stellatum glabrum Ger. emac. . . I found near the water-side
at Lighe in Essex. [Trifolium squamosum L., i.e. T. maritimum Huds.]
"Trifolium pumilum supinum flosculis longis albis P.B. . . . in the
road between Burntwood and Brook-street in Essex, &c., abundantly."
[Trifolium subterraneum Linn.]
"Typha palustris major J.B." and "Typha palustris media J.B." . . .
"Utramque speciem simul vidi in rivulo quodam juxta sedes Nobiliss. Comitis
Warwicensis Leez-house dictas in Essexia.'' [Typha latifolia Linn, and T.
angustifolia Linn.]
The second edition of the Catalogus, which appeared in 1677,
contains no additional Essex matter; but in 1686 and 1688
appeared the first and second volumes of the Historia Plantarum.
From 1666 to 1676 Ray's home had been at Middleton in
Warwickshire; from Michaelmas 1677 till June, 1679, he was
living with Edward Bullock at Faulkbourne Hall; and for the
remaining twenty-five years of his life his home was the
Dewlands, Black Notley (the house unfortunately burnt
down recently), where he died on January 17th, 1705.
It was, no doubt, on his settling at Black Notley that Ray first
became intimate with Samuel Dale, physician and apothecary of
Braintree. Born in 1658 or 1659, Dale was some thirty years
Ray's junior, and we have no knowledge as to when the younger
man settled at Braintree. In the Preface to his Pharmacologia
(1693), Dale speaks of himself as "Primo initiatus sub Auspiciis
Excellentissimi Viri et Reipublicae Philosophicae Principis
Dignissimi, Joannis Raii." While Ray's delicate health and
enormous literary toil confined him very much to his own home,
his young disciple, in pursuit at once of his profession and of his
hobby, visited many parts of Essex and Suffolk, besides making
occasional journeys to greater distances. Gifted undoubtedly
with great critical acumen, and confining his attention mainly
to British plants, Dale seems in accuracy of detail even to have
surpassed his master ; and the value of his services to Ray is
evinced by the way in which he is spoken of, when only six or
seven and twenty, in the Preface to the first volume of the
Historia (1686). Ray's words are "D. Samuel Dale, Medicus
et Pharmacopaeus vicinus et familiaris noster, Brantriae in Essexia
degens, qui libris diligenter collatis Synonyma examinavit, errata
correxit, et omissa supplevit, praeterea si quas species per
incuriam aut festinationem omissas observavit, me commonefecit,