Ray
Ray names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Ray of a composite flower
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
of a composite flower, the outer or circumferential whorl of florets, as distinguished from those of the disk. In many composites the former are ligulate and the latter tubular. Medullary rays are vertical plates radiating from the pith to the bark through the wood of exogenous stems. In the cross section, the medullary rays constitute fine radiating lines; in a longitudinal section, they impart to the wood a satiny luster, which in the plane, the sycamore, etc., is so marked as to be highly beautiful. The medullary rays maintain a connection between the bark and the central part of a stem. Carpenters call medullary rays the silver grain. In ichthyology, one of the radiating, bony rods serving to support the fins. They are of three kinds; (1) Simple; (2) Articulated (showing more or less numerous joints); and (3) Branched (dichotomically split, the joints increasing in number toward the extremity). The differences in the character of the rays in the dorsal fin are an important factor in classification. In optics, etc., a line of light proceeding from a radiant point, or a point of reflection. A collection of rays is called a pencil. An incident ray entering a doubly-refracting crystal is resolved into two, called from their properties an ordinary and an extraordinary ray. The term ray is used also of one of the component elements of light, as the violet rays of the spectrum; or the luminous, actinic, or heat rays: Visual ray, in perspective, a straight line drawn through the eye.
Ray or WRAY, JOHN
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or WRAY, JOHN, an English naturalist; born in Black Notley, Essex, England, Nov. 29, 1628. From Brain tree free school he went to Cambridge, where he was fellow, Greek lecturer, mathematical tutor, and junior dean in Trinity College, but after a time began to devote himself entirely to the study of natural history. At the Restoration he accepted Episcopal ordination, but was ejected by the "Black Bartholomew" (1662). Thereupon, accompanied by a kindred spirit, Francis Willughby, Ray traveled over most of the United Kingdom, collecting and investigating botanical and zoölogical specimens; and in 1663 they started on a tour through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France, with a similar object. In 1667 Ray was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. After several changes of residence, in 1679 Ray settled down in his native village. As botanist and a zoölogist he ranks very high, the classification of plants which he proposed being practically in the main the foundation of what is now known as the "Natural System" of classification. Ray's zoological works are considered by Cuvier as the foundation of modern zoology. The chief of his works on botany are "New Method of Plants" (1682); "Catalogue of the Plants of England" (1670), the basis of all the subsequent floras of Great Britain; and "History of Plants" (1686- 1704). His zoological works include the "Methodical Synopsis of Animals" (1893). Ray died in Black Notley, Jan. 17, 1705.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Most of what Collier's set down in 1921 still holds: florets of the disk and the ray, the "silver grain" of medullary rays in quarter-sawn oak and plane, and the simple, articulated and branched fin rays that ichthyologists still count when identifying a fish. Botanists now more often say vascular or wood rays than medullary rays, and the optical vocabulary has narrowed — "actinic rays" has dropped out of use, and a ray is now understood as a convenient geometrical idealisation within a wider electromagnetic and quantum account of light rather than a physical thing travelling from a radiant point. On John Ray the entry stands, though the date given for his "Methodical Synopsis of Animals" is a misprint for 1693; his reputation has if anything risen, since he is now regularly credited with the first workable biological definition of a species, in the 1686 "History of Plants". His birthplace at Black Notley in Essex still has his monument, and a modern scholarly society keeps his name in botanical circulation.
Written for this edition, 2026.