Letter 0583

Ray claims only to be capable of doing shabby work with the Maryland plants, as he is ‘a stranger to them’ and cannot determine their genus. He asks Sloane which of the plants are common to Jamaica. He had wanted to see Dr King about them, but the latter is leaving England. Ray says he has read Hermann’s and Boccone’s books and apologizes for having stained them with ink and fire. He informs Sloane that he has reached an agreement with Mr Smith about printing his Supplement. Ray was a theologian and naturalist who collected and catalogued his botanical findings in the much lauded Historia plantarum (1686, 1688) (Scott Mandelbrote, Ray , John (16271705), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23203, accessed 18 June 2013]).