246 T. G. BOERLAGE ON CHIONANTHUS GHAERI. 
On Chionanthus Ghaeri, Gaertn. By J. G. Boznlaar. 
(Communicated by the PRESIDENT.) 
[Read 7th February, 1895. } 
Tux figures in Joseph Gaertner's famous work ‘ De Fructibus 
et Seminibus Plantarum, published at the end of the last 
century, have not all been recognized. Several of them, espe- 
cially those which were drawn from incomplete materials, have 
remained more or less dubious. Such is the case with Chionan- 
taus Ghaeri, Gaertn. Nobody considers it to be a Chionanthus. 
In DeCandolle’s * Prodromus,’ viii. p. 295, and also in Hooker's 
* Flora of British India,’ iii. p. 611, it is mentioned as an obscure 
species. Gaertner relates (i. p. 189) that the fruit figured by 
him at t. xxxix. fis. 6*, had been received from the collection 
of seeds in the Leyden Museum. This collection was placed after- 
wards in ’s Ryck’s [State] Herbarium, where I found the original 
materials of the Chionanthus Ghaeri ; sothat I am now able to lift 
the veil which has hitherto enveloped it. The fruits are accom- 
panied by a ticket on which is written at one side No. 99, 
Gierietette, at theother side 29 lsuppose that the fruits 
1758 
belonged to a collection brought together in Ceylon in the year 
1758. A part of that collection had been sent to Gaertner, 
containing other species mentioned by him as Syzygium Idrakul, 
Jdrorinda umbellata, &c. I have some doubt whether the ticket 
originally belonged to the fruits; some confusion of tickets 
may have happened, for I find in Hermann’s Herbarium a real 
Chionanthus, C. zeylanicus, Linn., with the name “ Ghaeriatta 
ghas.” Now ghas being a common native name for several plants 
and efte for fruits or seeds, it may be that Ghaeriatta and Gieriet 
are only different spellings of the same name. But it is certain 
that ticket and fruits have been together for a long time, and 
that Gaertner had received his specimen with the name. The 
close agreement of the figure with the fruits leaves no doubt 
regarding their mutual identity. I am thus enabled to state 
that Chionanthus Ghaeri, Gaertn., not only has to be excluded 
* This figure is reproduced in Lamarck, ‘ Dictionnaire de Botanique; tab. 9 
(Chionanthus, fig. 3). 
