Historia plantarum.... 3 vols.

This massive catalogue begins with an extensive general botanical treatise covering plant physiology, plant nutrition and, most importantly, Ray's principles and methodology of botanical classification. Ray adopted Jung's morphological system and terminology, with extensions and modifications based upon his own work and that of Grew and Malpighi. He gave a more precise definition of the flower, adopting the terms "petal" and "pollen," and favored Grew's idea that the stamens were male sex organs. He stressed that breeding true from seed was the essential test of a natural species, but admitted the possibility of limited transmutation. Historia plantarum was a monument to Ray's learning, and prepared the way for Linnaeus, but it enjoyed only small success, being handicapped by its massive size, its lack of illustrations (the Royal Society was unwilling to incur the expense), and the political upheavals occuring at the time of its publication. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.