BOTANY I earliest account of Leicestershire plants is the MS. catalogue of plants near Loughborough, by R. Pulteney, in the year 1747. Another MS. catalogue by the same author is dated 1749. The former is in the Leicester Museum, the latter in the library of the Linnean Society. A list of plants, also by Pulteney, appeared in 1759 in Philosophical Transactions, xlix. Richard Pulteney was born at Loughborough in this county in the year 1730. He practised medicine and surgery at Leicester, was elected F.R.S. in 1762, M.D. Edin. 1764, in which year he removed to Blandford, Dorset. Ten years later he contributed the article on natural history and botany to Hutchin's History of Dor -set ', followed in 1803 by a fuller account in the second edition, which was completed in 1814. This second article did not appear until after his death, which took place on 13 October, 1801. A biography of this distinguished naturalist, by Dr. Maton, was published in the above-mentioned history. Camden's Britannia, 1789, contains a list of plants by Gough. The Rev. George Crabbe, the poet, contributed with Dr. Pulteney the 'Lists of rarer Plants ' in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, 1796. Crabbe spent some years of his life in the neighbourhood of Belvoir, where he made himself acquainted with many of the wild plants within walking distance of the castle, at which he acted as chaplain for nearly eighteen months (17835) ; he then 'wisely' accepted the vacant curacy of Stathern, which he held for four years. He was then presented to the two livings of Muston and Allington, the latter just over the boundary in Lincolnshire. He held these two livings from 1789 for over twenty-five years, but he was non-resident for thirteen years (1792-1805). At this period he was troubled with indifferent health whilst living at Parham, Great Glemham, and Rendham, all of which were near his native Aldeburgh in Suffolk. He returned to Muston in 1805, where he remained until 1814, when he was introduced to the living of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 3 June, 1814. He died here in February, 1832, in his seventy-eighth year. Some of the rarer plants recorded by Crabbe have disappeared through drainage from the Belvoir district, but others have been found since that were unknown to him when his list of Belvoir district plants was published. A few of his localities in Nichols's History are outside the county. The Rev. Andrew Bloxam, M.A., was born at Rugby, 22 Septem- ber, 1 80 1, entered Rugby School 1809, Worcester College, Oxford, 1820, of which he was afterwards Fellow. In 18245 ^ e was naturalist on board the frigate Blonde in the Pacific Ocean. He published papers on 27
