THE BOTANY OF NEWMARKET IN 1660
PATRICK ARMSTRONG
Newmarket is virtually an island of Suffolk surrounded by Cambridgeshire. It was in fact within the county of Cambridgeshire until 1851: Ebden’s Map of the county, published in 1825, for example, shows the whole of the town and all its surrounds, as far east as the settlements of Kennet and Kentford, as in Cambridgeshire.
This is worthy of note because it means that a small area of what is now Suffolk was covered in what was in effect the first English county Flora, published in 1660, authored by John Ray (1627-1704) - naturalist, theologian, linguist and polymath. It has been said that it is with John Ray that ‘the adventure of modern science begins’ (Raven, 1942; Armstrong, 2000; 2020).
It is Ray who has been described as ‘the Father of English natural history’ and ‘the point at which theology and science intersect’. Ewen and Prime (1975) claim that he was ‘the greatest all-round naturalist this country has ever produced’. He was born, lived his early life, and also spent his later years and died, in the village of Black Notley, close to Braintree, in Essex. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in May 1644, but soon switched to Saint Catherine November 1646. There he had a distinguished academic career – gaining his BA in 1647/8 (Old Style) and MA 1651. He was elected to a Fellowship in 1649, teaching Mathematics, Greek, and Humanities, and serving as a college administrator. He was ordained (in London) in 1660 and married in 1673. He travelled widely, on the continent and in northern and western England. He lost his fellowship following the political and religious turmoil of the Civil War, the Restoration and its aftermath. He wrote on plants, birds, insects, fish, on the English language and developed ‘natural theology’ - the notion that the study of natural history, and understanding the beauty and complexity of Creation, could provide insights into the nature of the Deity. Parson-naturalist Gilbert White (1720-1793) author of the immortal Natural History of Selbourne referred to ‘the excellent Mr Ray’. His long-term influence on science in England was profound.
John Ray, from the frontispiece of one of his books
John Ray recorded that in the 1650s he was unwell and took to the study of botany during his period of recuperation. He later transformed the whole approach to the classification of plants, putting it onto a secure, logical footing. He was amongst the earliest to understand the nature of biodiversity (the diversity of organisms within a habitat or area), and also gave one of the earliest definitions of the notion of species.
During his convalescence, he visited many sites around Cambridge, including Newmarket town and Heath, and Devil’s Ditch (and Dyke) - the latter securely within Cambridgeshire, although it was contiguous with the Heath in Ray’s day. These
notes on the plants of the town of Newmarket, and the countryside around it are sometimes detailed and perceptive, even if some of his Latin polynomials sound
Newmarket.
For example:
Cerastium arvense, Ray used the polynomial Auricula muris pulkchro flore albo (‘Mouse ear with a large white flower’), modern English names: field mouse-ear, field chickweed. He described the species as follows:
[O]nNewmarketheathamongthebushes,andonthedevilsditchplentifully.
Silene otites, Ray’s Sesamoides Salamamaticum magnum (‘The greater Spanish Catchflie’), now usually Spanish catchfly, was mentioned as occurring
Near the gravell pits as you go to the nearest windmill on the north side of Newmarkettown.
Orchis ustulata (Neotinea ustulata), Ray’s Orchis sive Cynosorchis minor Pannonica (‘Little purple-flowered Dogs-stones’), sometimes now the burnt-tip orchid:
AlloverGogmagoghillsandNewmarketheath.OntheDevilsditchbankyoumaybe suretofindit.
Simpson (1982) gave this species as: ‘Probably now extinct in Suffolk.’
Ray gave a list of some of the less common species that grew in each of about fifteen of his favourite botanising localities. Thus, he records of these significant species, some five ‘about the town’ of Newmarket, some six ‘on the heath’ and another five or six ‘on the bank of the great Ditch called Devil’s ditch’. Many of the species he noted still grow in the area today, or did so until very recently (I recall some of the Devil’s Dyke [Ditch] species as growing there in my childhood, in the 1950s).
The list below is taken from Ewen and Prime’s 1975 English edition of the Catalogus (the original was in Latin), with which I have attempted to provide some of the common English names.
Town:
Asperugo procumbens Madwort
Silene otitis Spanish catchfly
Medicago minima Little medick, Bur medick
Plantago coronopus Buckshorn plantain
Thalictrum minus Lesser meadow rue
Newmarket Heath
Artemisia campestris
Breckland mugwort, Field wormwood
Geranium sanguineum Bloody cranesbill
Rumex acetosella Field sorrel, Sheep sorrel
Ulex europaeus Gorse, Furze
Veronica spicata (syn. Pseudolysimachion spicatum) Spiked speedwell
Veronica officinalis Heath speedwell
Devil’s Ditch
Anacamptis pyramidalis Pyramidal orchid
Cerastium arvense Field chickweed, Field mouse-ear
Geranium sanguineum Bloody cranesbill
Gymnnadenia conopsea Chalk fragrant orchid, Scented orchid
Ophrys muscifera (syn. O. insectifera) Fly orchid and other orchid species
Ray has some of the early and perceptive ecological observations on plants, noting the typical habitat for many species: e.g. ‘on the borders of fields’, ‘in ditches and hedgerows’, ‘in woods and shady hedgerows’, ‘in damp meadows’, ‘in many rivulets and watery ditches’ and in some of his accounts he gives detailed descriptions of the organisms, such as insects, that feed upon the plants: a simple food-chain or foodweb diagram could be constructed. He has occasional comments on soil-type. He noted that dodder had no leaves, although (in the Catalogus) he does not actually associate parasitism with this characteristic. With mistletoe he was more certain, feeling that it could not grow ‘without a host plant’.
John Ray went on from his Catalogus of an English county, to publish on the plants of Britain as a whole (Synopsis methodioca stirpium Britannicarum, 1690), and then he attempted an account of all plants (Historia plantarum, published 1686-1704). He conducted experiments, he made early studies in plant physiology and developed the
He made other excursions into the natural history of Suffolk, and, for example, collected a number of bird specimens from the River Alde area in the east of the county. Other early Suffolk plant records for which he was responsible Mediago polymorpha Ophrys
(Early spider orchid, now probably extinct in Suffolk,
In some of his theological works he emphasised the manner in which at the Creation, God brought Order out of Chaos. The classification of organisms, indeed a good deal of natural history, before the time of Ray was indeed chaotic. In a very real way he brought order: he emphasised detailed observation, and allocated plants to taxonomic groups on the basis of their observable characteristics. Some of the families he recognised are considered valid today. In some of his early ecological notes he sought pattern. He was a true
Silene otites, the Spanish catchfly, recorded ‘on the north side of Newmarket town’ by John Ray. Hand-coloured print from Sowerby's English Botany (1793).
Armstrong, P. H. (2000). The English Parson-Naturalist - a Companionship between Science and Religion. Gracewing, Leominster.
Armstrong, P. H. (2020). The parson-naturalist in Suffolk. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 56: 27-36.
Ewen, A. H. & Prime, C. T., Eds, (1975). Ray’s Flora of Cambridgeshire, [Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam neascention (1660)]. Wheldon & Wesley Ltd. Hitchin.
Oswald, P. H. & Preston, C. D. (2011). John Ray’s Cambridge catalogue (1660): translated and edited by P. H. Oswald and C. D. Preston. The Ray Society, London: 2011.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 59 (2023)
Some illustrations from Ray’s Synopsis to show the excellence of his diagrams and his appreciation of the variety of living forms. Names as from Simson’s Flora of Suffolk (1982), where possible. Left (Tab IX): Fig. 1 Galium parisiense, var anglicum (wall bedstraw); Fig. 2 Myosotis sylvatica (wood forget-me-not). Right (Tab III): Fig. 1 leaf of Anemone nemorosa (wood anemone) with the sori of the fungus Tranzscelia anenomes; Fig. 2 the moss Splachnum ovatum; Fig. 3 Trichomanes speciosum (Killarney fern); Fig. 4 Osmunda regalis (royal fern).
Raven, C. E. (1942). John Ray: Naturalist. Cambridge University Press (reprinted 1986). Simpson, F. W. (1982). Simpson’s Flora of Suffolk. Suffolk Naturalists’ Society, Ipswich. Stearn, W. T., Ed., (1973). John Ray’s Synopsis methodica Stirpium Britannicum (1724 edition). John Ray Society, London.
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