vast and critical compilation is still in use as a book of reference, being particularly valuable as an epitome of the contents of various rare and expensive works, which ordinary libraries cannot possess. The description of species is faithful and instructive, the remarks original, bounded only by the whole circuit of the botanical learning of that day; nor are generic characters neglected, however vaguely they are assumed. Specific differences do not enter regularly into the author’s plan, nor has he followed any uniform rules of nomenclature. So ample a transcript of the practical knowledge of such a botanist cannot but be a treasure; yet it is now much neglected, few persons being learned enough to use it with facility for want of figures and a popular nomenclature; and those who are, seldom requiring its assistance. But if the fame or the utility of Ray’s botanical work has neither of them been commensurate with the expectations that might have been formed, a little octavo volume which he gave to the world in 1690, amply supplied all such defects, and proved the great corner-stone of his reputation in this department of science. This was “A Methodical Synopsis of British Wild Plants.” The two editions of his alphabetical catalogue of English plants being sold off, and some pettifogging reasons of his booksellers standing in the way of a third, with any improvements, he remodelled the work, throwing it into a systematic form, revising the whole, supplying generic characters, with numerous additions of species and various emendations and remarks. The uses and medicinal qualities of the plants are removed to the alphabetical index at the end. A second edition of this “Synopsis” was published in 1693, but its author never prepared another. The third, now most in use, was edited twenty-eight years afterward by Dillenius. Of all the systematical and practical floras of any country the second edition of Ray’s “Synopsis” was the most perfect of his time, and for many a long year afterwards. “He examined every plant recorded in his work, and even gathered most of them himself. He investigated their different names with consummate accuracy; and if the clearness and precision of other authors had equalled his, he would scarcely have committed an error. It is difficult to find him in a mistake or misconception respecting nature herself, though he sometimes misapprehends the bad figures or lame descriptions he was obliged to consult.” Above a hundred species are added in this second edition, and the cryptogamic plants in particular are more amply elucidated. The work led to much disputing, but Ray took no delight in controversy; its inevitable asperities were foreign to his nature. One of the biographers of Ray writes: “We must not omit to notice that in the preface to both editions of his ‘Synopsis’ the learned author, venerable for his character, his talents, and his profession, as well as by his noble