John Ray:
(Black Notley (Braintree, Essex), 29 November 1627 – there, 17 January 1705). British botanist.
Ray was the son of the village blacksmith. He went to study in Cambridge at St Catharine ’s College and taught Greek and mathematics. He published important works on plants, animals and natural theology. His classification of plants in his book Historia Plantarum (1686) was an important step towards modern taxonomy and inspired by Porphyrius’ tree.
Ray rejected the dichotomous classification system and based his classification on similarities and differences he observed empirically. In this way, he was a champion of scientific empiricism against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics. He has been called the father of English natural history.
f the first of July be rainy weather, it will rain, more or less, for four weeks together.
