ESSEX AND THE EARLY BOTANISTS. 451
early specimens, still in a state of excellent preservation, and
labelled with the utmost care and accuracy. In Buddie's collection
it is interesting to find a plant of the broad-leaved spurge
(Euphorbia platyphylla, Koch.) gathered by Dr. Dale in 'Bay's
orchard at Black Notley.' Of this uncommon plant Bay makes
the following note: ' It grows spontaneously in mine own Orchard
here, coming up yearly of its own sowing, for it is an annual
plant.' It seems now to have disappeared from its old locality;
but close by, beneath a venerable-looking pear tree, said to have
been planted by the great naturalist himself, the writer found a
beautiful specimen of the rare blue-flowered pimpernel, called by
Gerarde the 'Female Pimpernell,' and noticed by Johnson
'among the corne at Wrightsbridge in Essex.'
Very interesting too is a walk about the parish of Black
Notley, the general features of which have hut little changed since
Bay lived there. The mediaeval church with its low shingle
spire; the churchyard surrounded by rugged elms; the black-
smith's forge, the wayside inn; the osier-bed where Bay found
'the Almone-leaved Willow that casts its bark;' the ponds at the
Hall where, as in the seventeenth century, the great cat's-tail
grows ; the little stream below Dewlands, still full of watercress as
when the aged naturalist gathered it, together with brooklime
and plantain, to make a 'diet-drink' for the benefit of his broken
health ; the grass lane towards the ancient Priory down which he
loved to wander- -all may be visited ; the very plants in the
hedgerows remain, with a few exceptions, the same as in the
seventeenth century. Butcher's broom may still be noticed in the
thick tangled hedges of 'Leez Lane,' and the linden tree 'called
hereabouts Pry,' and herb paris in a copse hard by; but the
writer failed to find, doubtless through his own stupidity, 'the
wild Garlick in a field called Westfield adjoining to Leez-lane,' and
the musk-orchis 'in the greens of a field belonging to the hall
called Wair-field.' Here and there on the roadside wastes the
beautiful crimson grass Vetchling will attract notice ; and the
'Stinking Gladdon or Gladwyn' (Iris foetidissima, L.) is abun-
dant 'in the Hedges by the Road, not far from the Parsonage
towards Braintree;' but unfortunately the wild black currant, or
'squinancy-berries,' so-called because of its use in cases of quinsey
and sore-throat, has disappeared from its ancient habitat 'by the
river-side near the bridge called the Hoppet-bridge.' Another
interesting plant which Bay came across in the neighbourhood of
Notley was the London rocket, which, as he says, 'after the
GG 2