HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
225
ut ejus ope Historia nostra aliquot mendis repurgata, et speciebus
aucta sit." In the first two volumes of the Historia, which
comprise nearly 2,000 pp. folio, some 6,900 plants are described.
Of these only a comparatively small proportion are British and
of these last only the less common are localised, so that the
number of species recorded from Essex is not very great.
Though many of these were the result of Dale's collecting, there
are others, chiefly from Faulkbourne or Black Notley, sufficient
to disprove the notion that Ray was entirely a closet naturalist.
A third edition of the Catalogus being required, Ray, as he had
been advised by his friend, Dr. Ralph Johnson, determined to
replace its merely alphabetical arrangement by one in accordance
with his views on taxonomy ; but, as a preliminary, issued in
the same year as the second volume of the Historia, a
27 pp. supplement to the Catalogus, entitled Fasciculus Stirpium
Britannicarum, post editum Plantarum Anglia Catalogum observatarum,
which, in addition to several rare Alpine plants from Wales and
others from Cornwall, describes several new fungi, mosses and
grasses and other plants, collected by Dale in Essex. Many of
these had already been described in the two volumes of the
Historia, although not in the Catalogus.
The records in the first and second volumes of the Historia
are :—
*Ahnfeltia plicata J. Ag.
*Halidrys siliquosa Lyngb.
"Conferva palustris."
*Lunularia vulgaris Michel.
Potamogeton interruptus Kit. var. scoparius.
*Ruppia rostellata Koch.
*Atriplex littoralis L. var. serrata Moq.
A. laciniata L.
*Hypochaeris maculata L.
Peucedanum officinale L.
Bupleurum tenuissimum L.
Cynoglossum germanicum Jacq.
*Mentha rotundifolia Huds.
Damasonium stellatum Pers.
*Sisymbrium irio L.
Lepidium latifolium L.