Martin Lister and Lincolnshire natural history : Presidential address to the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, 1927 / [H.W. Kew].

  • Kew, H. Wallis (Harry Wallis), 1868-
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Martin Lister and Lincolnshire natural history : Presidential address to the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, 1927 / [H.W. Kew]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    27, or thereabouts, he had observed much of the natural history of the neighbourhood. But whether he was, as many have been, a naturalist from the first, we cannot say. iv. At the time of Lister’s arrival at Cambridge in 1655 and onwards till 1662, Ray was there—but Ray was Lister’s senior by ten years—and it was not till they met at Montpel¬ lier in 1665 (when Lister was already a Fellow of his College, and doubtless by that time applying himself to physic) that we find evidences of their friendship. They then studied the plants, and observed some of the snails and insects, of the country around ; and later, when they were again in England, Ray rejoiced to find that his friend continued such studies, not confining them to phytology only, but taking in zoology, and the whole latitude of natural history. Lister returned to Cambridge in 1666, but the sickness still raging there, he left about midsummer, and spent the rest of the year in this county. Meanwhile Ray had called at Cam¬ bridge ; that fact appearing from notes of Lister’s (Bodl. MS. Lister, 39). These notes begin: ‘June 18th, 1666. Mr. Wray, Mr. Dent and I went out a simpling That was a day’s outing to the Gogmagog Hills, &c., ground already fully familiar to Ray and Dent, but to Lister many of the plants, of which according to the Cambridge Catalogue he set down a long list, were new. After Ray’s departure, Lister went to Bassingbourn, and thence on July 18th to Burwell. Upon the road during this journey, also at Burwell in July and August, at Wainfleet in September, &c., he continued to record the plants he found. ‘ At Burwell ’ (and round about) more than forty kinds were noted, and they included those of the Woods, the Deer Park and the Water Park, the walls about the house, &c. The following are representative entries : 1. Linum sativum Ger. [Linum usitatissimum, Flax]. Sowed in the fields two miles before we came at Horncastle. 2. Cannabis prima sive sat iv a C. B. [Cannabis sativa, Hemp]. Plenty sowed between Bourne and Horncastle. 3. Eupatorium aquaticurn duorum generum Park. \Bidens, Bur- Marigolds] . Everywhere in the Fens as I came to