The Herbarium of John Ray FRS (1627 – 1705)

John Ray F.R.S. (1627-1705) was the leading English naturalist of the 17th century. The son of a blacksmith, born in Black Notley in Essex, Ray was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, where he would also become a Fellow. Ray took holy orders in 1660 but subsequently resigned in 1662, unable to conform to the requirements of the Act of Uniformity.

After leaving Cambridge, Ray travelled extensively, both through Britain and Europe, with his former student, friend and later patron, Francis Willughby. He made botanical collections during those travels. The bulk of the specimens in Ray’s herbarium are European, or from cultivation, collected during Ray’s European travels between 1663 and 1665 (Trimen, 1870), described by Ray in his Observations in the Low Countries (1673). There are, additionally, a number of specimens from England that Trimen suggests were probably collected during travels in 1667 and 1668. The plants gathered on his British tours were described in his Catalogus plantarum Angliae (1670). Ray's specimens were also used for his Methodus plantarum nova (1682) and the Historia generalis plantarum which he published in three volumes in 1686, 1688 and 1704. As Trimen (1870) noted, Ray’s botanical specimens are therefore of particular value in determining the identity of plants described in his publications.

Ray’s herbarium comprises 523 sheets arranged in 20 lettered fascicles (A-Y but with no I, P, U, V or X) and with each fascicle comprising between 9 and 44 numbered sheets (although there are two sheets labelled F16, with the second distinguished by an asterisk, and one sheet in fascicle R is unnumbered). The sheets typically contain multiple specimens that are stitched to the paper on which they are mounted and that are labelled in the hand of Ray (or, possibly, Dale). The sheets were subsequently remounted after their transfer to BM. Typically, the original sheet is mounted onto the larger sheet but this is not always the case and in some instances only the specimens and labels were remounted.

Not all of the specimens that originally formed part of Ray’s herbarium survive since a significant number of sheets have been cut and, in some cases, the past existence of specimens is evident only from plant fragments, stitch holes, discolouration, or the accompanying name.

Upon his death in 1705, Ray bequeathed his herbarium to the apothecary Samuel Dale. While in Dale’s possession, he produced an alphabetically arranged catalogue to the herbarium that lists pre-Linnean polynomial names, sometimes with the place of publication and, more rarely, with synonyms. References to the sheets on which specimens referrable to that name are found are also provided. The catalogue collectively accounts for 1225 specimens, although no specimens from the 89 sheets that make up fascicles T, W or Y were catalogued by Dale.

The dataset provided here contains two resources. The first is a transcription of Dale’s catalogue to the herbarium that serves as a taxonomic index. Links to images of the corresponding herbarium sheets and the relevant page from Dale's catalogue are included for each specimen entry. In the future, we aim to include modern determinations.

The second comprises images of all 523 herbarium sheets.

A digital edition of Dale's catalogue to Ray's herbarium is available on the Library and Archives archive viewer: https://nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/44NHM_INST:44NHM_V1/12244210500002081

Reference: Trimen, H. (1870). Notes on Ray’s ‘Hortus Siccus’. Journal of Botany, British and foreign 8: 82—84.

约翰·雷伊（John Ray, F.R.S.，英国皇家学会院士，1627-1705）是17世纪英国顶尖的博物学家。作为铁匠之子，他出生于埃塞克斯郡的布莱克诺特利，早年就读于剑桥大学三一学院，之后亦成为该院院士。雷伊于1660年受圣职，但1662年因无法遵守《统一法案》的相关要求而辞职。

离开剑桥后，雷伊与他昔日的学生兼挚友、日后的资助者弗朗西斯·威洛比（Francis Willughby）一同游历了不列颠与欧洲大陆各地，并在此期间采集了大量植物标本。雷伊植物标本馆（herbarium）中的绝大多数标本均采自欧洲或为栽培种，采集于1663至1665年的欧洲游历途中（特里门，1870），相关标本记录见于雷伊的《低地国家考察记（Observations in the Low Countries）》（1673）。此外，还有一批来自英格兰的标本，特里门推测其采集于1667与1668年的不列颠境内游历，相关记录则收录于《不列颠植物名录（Catalogus plantarum Angliae）》（1670）。雷伊的标本还被用于其著作《植物新分类法（Methodus plantarum nova）》（1682）以及三卷本《植物通志（Historia generalis plantarum）》，该著作分别于1686、1688与1704年出版。正如特里门（1870）所言，雷伊的植物标本对于确认其著作中描述的植物物种身份具有特殊价值。

雷伊的植物标本馆共包含523张标本台纸，分为20个按字母排序的分册（fascicles，编号为A-Y，但缺失I、P、U、V与X），每个分册包含9至44张带编号的台纸（不过其中F分册有两张标注为F16的台纸，第二张带有星号区分；R分册中有一张台纸未编号）。每张台纸通常附有多份标本，标本被缝合在承载用的纸张上，并带有雷伊（或可能是戴尔）手写的标签。这些台纸被移交至大英博物馆（BM）后被重新装裱。通常情况下，原台纸会被粘贴至更大的装裱纸上，但也存在例外：部分标本仅将标本与标签进行了重新装裱。

并非所有原本属于雷伊植物标本馆的标本都得以留存至今，因为有相当数量的台纸已被拆分，在部分案例中，标本曾经存在的痕迹仅能通过植物残片、缝合孔、褪色痕迹或附带的名称得以辨识。

1705年雷伊逝世后，他将自己的植物标本馆遗赠给了药剂师塞缪尔·戴尔（Samuel Dale）。在戴尔保管该标本馆期间，他编制了一份按字母排序的标本馆目录，该目录作为分类学索引，收录了林奈之前（pre-Linnean）的植物多项式名称，部分名称附带了发表出处，极少数还标注了异名。同时，目录中还指明了对应名称的标本所存放的台纸位置。该目录总计收录了1225份标本，但戴尔并未对T、W、Y三个分册所包含的89张台纸中的标本进行编目。

本次提供的数据集包含两项资源：其一为戴尔所编植物标本馆目录的转录本，该转录本可作为分类学索引，同时附带了对应标本台纸的图像链接。我们期望在后续阶段能够将目录页面的图像也纳入本数据集，此外还计划加入现代物种鉴定结果。其二则为全部523张植物标本台纸的图像。

参考文献：特里门，H.（1870）。雷伊的《干燥植物标本集（Hortus Siccus）》札记。《英国与外国植物学杂志（Journal of Botany, British and foreign）》8: 82—84.