all the liquor,
which close up in a bolt-head again, and digest in a gentle sand-heat for
two months more. Rather a troublesome and slow process this.

4. _Geum urbanum_ he calls _Caryophyllata_, _Herba benedicta_, and _Geum
Plinii_, and should be gathered, he says, in the middle of March, for then
it smells sweetest, and is most aromatic. Hot and dry in the 2^o, binding,
strengthening, discussive, cephalic, neurotic, and cardiac. Is a good
preservative against epidemic and contagious disease; helps digestion. The
powder of the root, dose [dr.]j. The decoction, in wine, stops spitting of
blood, dose [dr.]ss to [dr.]jss. The saline tincture opens all obstructions
of the viscera, dose [dr.]j to [dr.]iij.

Should ENIVRI wish to know the medical virtues of our wild plants, I have
no doubt but that this worthy old physician will tell him what virtues they
were considered to possess in his day, at least by himself; and I can
assure him that 1195 of the _English Physician's_ pages ascribe marvellous
properties, not only to plants, but to animals, fish, and even the bones of
a stag's heart.

R. J. SHAW.

* * * * *

JACOB BOBART.

(Vol. vii., pp. 428. 578.)

I am exceedingly obliged for the information afforded by DR. E. F. RIMBAULT
concerning the Bobarts. Can he give me any more communication concerning
them? I am anxious to learn all I can. I have old Jacob Bobart's signature,
bearing date 1659, in which he spells his name with an _e_ instead of _a_,
which seems to have been altered to an _a_ by his son Jacob.

In _Vertumnus_ it says Bobart's _Hortes Siccus_ was in twenty volumes; but
the _Oxford Botanic Garden Guide_ only mentions twelve quarto volumes:
which is correct, and where is it? In one of my copies of _Vertumnus_, a
scrap of paper is fixed to p. 29., and the following is written upon it:

"The Hortus Siccus here alluded to was sold at the Rev. Mr.
Hodgkinson's sale at Sarsden, to Mrs. De Salis, wife of Dr. De Salis."

Is there any pedigree of the family?

In a letter of Jno. Ray's to Mr. Aubrey is the following:

"I am glad that Mr. Bobart hath been so diligent in observing and
making a collection of insects."

Is there any collection extant?

"He may give me much assistance in my intended Synopsis of our English
Animals, and contribute much to the perfecting of it."

Did he do so?

Is the print of old Jacob Bobart, by W. Richardson, _valuable