^ 



202 



Virginia, to wh'icli, from this erroneous fuppofition, they have rr[ r 

 the trivial name of Benzoin, lliis miftake feems to have originaM 

 with Mr. Ray, who in his Hiftoria Plantarum, vol ii. p. ig. - 

 the end of his account of the Arbor Benivifera of Garcia 



Ad nos fcripfit D. T^ancredus Robin/on Arborem refiniferani 

 " tarn foUis citrinis prxdidse haud abfimilem tranfmiflum fuiff 



Virginia a D. Banifter, ad . ilhiflrillimuin Pra^fulem D. Pie 



u 



(( 



e e 



nr. 



Compton, in cujus inftrudiflimo horto cuka eft. Arbor ift* 



Virginiana Citrii, vel Limonii foHis Benzoinum fundcns, In horto 

 reverendiffimi Epifcopi cuka." This error was deteded by Lin- 

 naeus, but another was fubftituted by him in its place;' for in his 



(( 



iC 



Mantilla Plantarum Altera he tells us, that Benjamin is furnifhed by 

 a fhrub defcribed there under the name of Croton Benzoe and 

 afterwards, in the Supplementum Plantarum, defcribes again the fame 



der the name of Terminalia Benzoin. M. Jacquin, who 

 had been informed that this fhrub was called by the French Bienjoint, 

 flippofes, with reafon, that the fimilar found of that word with 

 Benjoin, the French name for Benjamin, may have occafioned this 

 miftake.' Since that period. Dr. Flouttuyn has defcribed the Ben- 

 jamin tree of Sumatra ; but for want of good fpecimens has been fo 

 unfortunate as to miftake the genus to which it belongs. 



THs tree, which is a native of Sumatra, is deemed, in fix years, 

 ot lulhcient age for affording the Benzoine, or when ks trunk acquires 

 about feyen or eight inches in diameter; the bark is then cut through 

 ongitudinally, or fomewhat obliquely, at the origin of the principal 

 lower branches, from which the drug exudes in a liquid ftate, and by 

 --poiure to the fun and air foon concretes, when it is fcraped o 



>5 e 



from the bark with a knife, or chiflel. The quantity of B........ 



7 a ""r T^ ^^°''^'' ''^^^'" ^-^'^e«ds three pounds/ nor are the trees 

 tound to fuftam the efFeds of thefe annual incifions lonp-er than ten 

 or twelve years." The Benzoine which iffues firft from the wounded 



i 



i?/! llnnl'r^ ^^' """^ "^'^^ ^^" "^^^^ t^^ publication of his Spec. Pl.nt.'v^h^rc it 



N 



ftand 



E 



^ort. Vindob. vol iir_ p, ^ 



\^ 



f^nT."l" ^'^ ^^' Specimens from Rademacher ' from which he determined the 



Vide Grimm ^ Marfdm, I. c. p. 124 



^'''^'''' ^''' - "^ Marfdm, I.e. 



bark 



