306 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Some Essex Naturalists
BY BERNARD T. WARD
[Read 29 January, 1955]
Essex has produced a large number of naturalists, many
of them famous, some less so, but nevertheless of interest
to us. The chief difficulty in preparing this paper has been
in making a selection.
In medieval times the differences between gardeners,
naturalists and apothecaries were slight and it was not un-
common for a botanist or gardener to be an apothecary or
physician, or vice versa.
Essex is the native county of one who was probably the
greatest naturalist not only of his day but of all time. John
Ray, of Black Notley, who flourished from 1627 to 1705.
It would be quite impossible in the course of one talk or
even a series of talks to attempt to deal adequately with his
life and work, and I would suggest that those who wish to
know more of Ray and his associates should read Canon
Raven's comprehensive biography.
One of the earliest of the Essex botanists of whom we
have any definite record was William Coys, of Stubbers, in
the parish of Northokington, or as the place is called in
these days, North Ockendon.
Some early references in Matthias de L'Obel's Stirpium
adversaria nova, Second Edition, published in London
in 1605, give an interesting if short list of the plants
grown by Coys in his garden. Apparently, he had some
special kinds of Primulas, but the chief feature of the
garden in 1604 was the flowering for the first time in Eng-
land of a Yucca which bloomed in July of that year. L'Obel,
perhaps better known by his scientific name of Lobelius,
and after whom the garden flower Lobelia is named, pub-
lished in his book a plate illustrating this particular Yucca.
A year or so later, George Wilmer flowered the same species
in his garden at Stratford atte Bow.
Lobelius was born at Lille in Belgium, and later in this
country had charge of a physic garden at Hackney. Un-
doubtedly he herborised in Essex, and it is possible that it