John Ray

John Ray (1629-1707)
“When I was forced, following an illness that affected me both physically and mentally, to rest from more serious studies, and to spend my time in riding and walking, I had leisure in the course of my journeys to contemplate the varied beauty of plants and the cunning craftsmanship of Nature that was constantly before my eyes…..I became inspired with a passion for Botany, and I conceived a burning desire to become proficient in that study…” 1
This small book, now very rare, was the first book written on plants by John Ray who was a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He had become ill, probably through overwork and began to take walks in the countryside around Cambridge. It was on these walks that he began to conceive a project that would alter the course of his life. As a child it was the wonder of the plant world that had so fascinated him when his mother, a respected herbalist, had taken him out to collect plants for medicinal purposes. It was this interest that was rekindled by these walks around Cambridge.
He decided to take on the responsibility for the study of Botany at the University, both for his own pleasure and for the advancement of the University. However as it was not considered an important aspect of scientific study, he could not find anyone to assist him in this field of study. He therefore took it upon himself to further the study of Botany and to make himself proficient in that subject of research.
It was the way in which he went about the writing of the Cambridge Catalogue which makes him stand out in the area of Natural Sciences. He began with a study of all the relevant literature of the time and found the previous botanical writings to be both confusing, and inaccurate. He began to read and study the writings of Jean and Gaspard Bauhin, John Gerard, and John Parkinson, who was Botanist to Charles I. He conducted experiments to learn about plants` physiology and growth using both the descriptive and scientific aspects of the methodology. He began to develop a small garden of simple medicinal plants at the College.
He spent six years exploring the area around Cambridge, collecting plants and making notes, followed by a further three years of revising and writing. He was anxious to avoid making mistakes but he also wanted to promote the almost extinct study of Botany for the University. He enlisted the help of friends and students – Sir Francis Willoughby,John Nidd, Phillip Skippon and Peter Courthope. They would accompany him on his travels around Britain and across the English Channel to Europe.
In 1660 the Cambridge Catalogue (Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantibrigiam nascentium) was published at the price of 2s. 6d. It contained eight sections: Preface (16 pages), Bibliography (12 pages) of about 50 works, Catalogue (182 pages) lists alphabetically 671 plants. He used names taken from Jean and Gaspard Bauhin, Gerard and Parkinson. If an early description is not clear, he used synonyms, each followed by an abbreviated author`s name. The entries are in Latin but the names and localities are in English. Where a species had either not been described before or where the description was confused or obscure, he added his own observations, accurate details of Morphology, habit, annual or perennial, time of flowering and medical uses where relevant. English names and their Latin equivalents are given in an index (29 pages) which has its own sub-title page
and numbering. Then there was a summary of the major plants and their localities e.g. Madingley, `In the Wood`, `In the lanes` and `Close about the town`.
The Etymology of the Latin names of plants was covered in 48 pages and the Terminorum or explanation of Latin terms is next, followed by the Capita (3 pages) or outline classification of plants. He did not regard Bauhin`s method of classification as satisfactory and used other means of classification to identify and classify plants e.g. flowers, seeds and leaves.
This book was the first significant work on Local Flora of any county to be published. He hoped it would encourage others to become interested in the field of Botany and to undertake similar surveys of their own localities so that a complete Flora of Britain (Phytologica Britannica) would be published.
He wanted to bring order out of chaos. He established that there had to be a means of accurate identification by fixing species names and descriptions. He did this by sifting through data, sorting multiple names used by different authors for the same plant and producing accurate descriptions-many from his own observations. In so doing he laid the foundations for the study of scientific botany, plant distribution and geography in contrast to Astrology, Alchemy and superstition.
In the same year as the publication of the Cambridge Catalogue, he reluctantly agreed to ordination as a priest. This must have caused him some anxiety as he believed that the priesthood was a vocational calling and not a post that was required to fulfil through necessity. It was a requirement in order to remain at Cambridge University.
From 1658 he began travelling around Britain to study the flora of different counties. He travelled with his friends-Willoughby, Skippon, Courthope and Nidd. This period of Jon Ray`s life was the beginning of a new career which took his life and achievements in a new direction, albeit one for which his earlier career at Cambridge had prepared him. These journeys must have been very difficult as there was not a plentiful supply of maps and plans, and they had to ask local people wherever they went for the locations of species. During this time John Ray also collected material for his book on Proverbs and studied local dialects.
In 1662 tragedy occurred which was to completely alter Ray`s life and work. Following his restoration King Charles II reinstated the Act of Uniformity. Within the Act, it stated that all who bore any office must make a solemn declaration that those who had sworn an oath under the solemn League and Covenant were not obliged to keep to that oath. Although he had not sworn that oath, he felt that to swear an oath was binding and he had a crisis of conscience. Therefore in August 1662 he had to resign from his post at Cambridge and cast himself adrift from the University without any means of support and income. As great as John Ray`s achievements were in the field of Botany, one can only speculate as to how much greater they would have been with the great libraries and resources of Cambridge University at his disposal.
At this low point in his life, it was the help and financial support of his friend, Sir Francis Willoughby that enabled him to carry on his research from 1662 for the next ten years travelling in Britain, and from 1663-66 making trips to the continent to study foreign flora, and for Willoughby to study fish. In 1670 he published the Catalogus Plantarum Angliae or the English Catalogue, extending the Cambridge Catalogue to include the plants studied on the trips around the British Isles. He improved
the arrangement and content from his experiences and became more accurate in defining plants. He produced and important section devoted to the definition of species and detecting the unique medicinal qualities of each plant e.g. epilepsy he gives six plants, and for diuretics he gives forty-seven!
In 1688 he published a Fascicule of British Plants as a supplement to the Catalogue of English plants. A Fascicule is a part of a book published in instalments. The Flora of Britain was republished in 1690. It contained the previous work of the Cambridge catalogue to the first two volumes of the History of Plants. It sold out in four years; the second edition was published in 1696 and the third edition published posthumously in 1724.
Following his foreign trips with Sir Francis Willoughby (1663-66) he published, in 1673, the Catalogus Stirpiumin Exteris Regionibus or the Catalogue of Foreign Plants. It is an alphabetical list with eight synonyms from major authors with a remarkable number of new European finds which he named and described. It was printed in Latin with its own numbering. The sub-title page was not printed as a separate entity but was bound in with an account in English of other observations made on tour. He made a remarkable number of new finds which he also named and described. A second edition was published in 1678 and a revised edition was published in 1694.
His greatest achievement to Botany was the science of plant classification. The first major work in this area was Methodus Plantarum Nova or the New Method of Plants, published in 1682. He realised that it was necessary to use the whole structure of the plant (Lobelius used leaves, Cesalpino used the fruit and the seed). He conducted experiments on plants 1) covering the motion of the sap in trees for the Royal Society 2) on the seeds of plants he showed have one seed leaf with the seed undivided while other seeds have a leaf coming from each of the lobes of the seed 3) on the specific differences of plants he established the precise criteria for determining what was and what was not a species (this also applied to Zoology). He listed the accidental characteristics – size, colour, smell, taste, shape and variegation. Although he did not use the terms monocotyledon and di-cotyledon, it is now recognised as one of the fundamental divisions in the plant world.
Following the death of his mother in 1679, John and his wife Margaret moved to his mother`s house, Dewlands in Black Notley. It was in this house that John Ray was to live and work, producing many important scientific publications on Botany, Fish, Insects, Fossils, and Birds. His main interests were Botany but it can be stated that his achievements in Zoology were all the more remarkable as they were not his main interest and had to be fitted in around his botanical studies. John Ray and Francis Willoughby had collaborated on the Ornithologiae, or Ornithology as a tribute to his friend. In 1676 the book was published in Latin. Classifications were practical and designed to help beginners identify the different species.
Following completion of the Ornithology, John Ray began work on the Hiistoria Piscium, or History of Fishes. He used a similar method to the previous book in that he examined the previous literature and, although he was not able to access Willoughby`s notes he called upon his many friends and completed the work. In 1685 his friend Dr Tancred Robinson persuaded the Royal Society to publish his book in 1686. Other scientists, including John Evelyn, Elias Ashmole and Christopher Wren, as well as Samuel Pepys (who contributed fifty pounds) paid for the plates of illustrations.
In the same year, the first volume of John Ray`s greatest work, the Historia Plantarum was published. The second and third volumes were published in 1688 and 1704. It is 2,600 pages of small type, each page measuring 45cm x 28cm. It contains descriptions of all the known plants of the world, arranged in an updated and expanded version of his Method. It is spread over 125 sections of which may correspond to modern families. Volume 1 is a test book of botanical science and covered all that was known on Anatomy, Physiology, reproduction, morphology and Classification. A flower was defined more precisely and it laid the foundations for future studies in plant physiology. He gives details of the movement of water as a major feature of transpiration in plants. He explained that leaves make food for plants and the fruit, from the sap rising through the roots, and from rain, air and dew through the leaves. He distinguishes between flowering and non-flowering plants – Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. He indicates differences between plants with enclosed seeds (Angiosperms) and those with naked seeds (Gynosperms). All these categories have major (taxonomic) significance in Botany today. He divided Ferns and Fungi into groups e.g. the fern is based on the position and the type of leaf. He also provides synonyms, details of habitat, locality, gross morphology and notes on related species. He gives methods of propagation, collecting and drying plants and the medicinal properties, chemistry of plants and plant diseases. He introduced the word `petal` to distinguish a floral leaf from an ordinary leaf and the word `pollen` for small globules produced by the anthers of flowers.
In Volume 2 he introduces Dendrologia, or the study of trees and gives a commentary on products from plants, and on wines. In the Third Volume he lists 10, 000 new entries for plants from many parts of the world – America, Africa, the Far East, The Philippines and the West Indies.
In 1703 he published his Methodus Plantarum Emendata et Aucta as a response to any weaknesses in the Historia Plantarum.
He also wrote books on Proverbs, the Little Dictionary published in English, Latin and Greek in 1675. His last great work was The Wisdom of God, published in 1691 in English. It differed from his other work in that instead of bringing order out of chaos through observing, describing, identifying and classifying it was mainly concerned with interpretations of these findings. It covered the whole of the known world including the Solar System, Geology, animals, plants and human Anatomy. It was his most widely-read and popular book.
John Ray died on 17 January 1705 and was buried in Black Notley church yard. A memorial was built in his honour and there is a statue of him in the garden at the Braintree Museum.
His great achievements were to bring order out of chaos, which had existed before, bringing order and logic so that the modern science of Botany can be studied today. He invented a taxonomic system based on physiology, morphology and anatomy, thus paving the way for the works of Linnaeus and Gilbert White.
Despite his frailty at the end of his life he managed to complete the life cycles of 47 species of butterfly from egg to imago. These words describe the relationship between his religious beliefs and his life`s dedicated study of the natural world. He said “You ask what is the use of butterflies? I reply to adorn the world and delight he eyes of men: to brighten the countryside like so many golden jewels. To contemplate their exquisite beauty and variety is to experience the truest pleasure.
To gaze inquiringly at such elegance of colour and form designed by the ingenuity of nature and painted by her artist`s pencil, is to acknowledge and adore the imprint of the art of God.