/ 



320 



-jnove eyery doubt concerning the true charaders of Canella alba ; and 

 by comparing the annexed plate with that publifhed of the Winterana 

 aromatica, in the fifth volume of Medical Obfervations and Inquiries 

 by Drs. Fothergill and Solander,!| it maybe obferved how far the tree 

 which produces the' cortex wunteranus, differs from that of our plant' 

 the bark of w^hich is the officinal Canella alba. The latter appears from 

 Clufms to have been firfl introduced into Britain about the year i6oo;4' 

 the former w^as known in England twenty years before, and took its 

 name from William Winter, captain of one of the fliips which accom- 

 panied Sir Francis Drake to the Straits of Magellan, from whence he 



f 



brought this bark to Europe in 1579. John Bauhin appears to be the 

 lirft " who confounded the names of thele barks, by ftyling the cortex 

 winteranus Canella alba; and as Sir Hans Sloane, who has given a 

 feparate defcription of both trees, and was fenfible of a difference in the 

 tafte of their barks, feems to infinuate that this might depend upon the 

 place of growth, his remarks did not wholly remove the error/ 



ProfefTor Murray, in his 14th edition of the Syftema Vegetabilium, 

 was the firft who made a diftind: genus of Canella, and thus correded 

 the miftake of LinnasuSjJ who, difregarding the evidence of the old 

 botanlfts,* combined two genera under the name of Laurus Winterana; 

 but he afterwards made it a feparate genus, and called it Winterania, 

 a name by which it has been long univerfally, though improperly 

 diftinguiflied . Mr. Aiton, who has followed Murray in confidering 

 the Canella, as differing generically from the tree named after Winter, 

 informs us, that it was cultivated by Mr. Phillip Miller, at Chelfea, 



in I739-' . - 



II " Some Account of the Cortex Winteranus^ or Magellanicus^ hy Dr. John Fother^W^ 

 ^kh a Botanical Defcription by Dr. Solander^ and fame Experiments by Dr. Morris." p- 41. 



t He fays, " Ante paucos annos (1605) ccepit exotlcus cortex inferri, cui nomen 

 Ganellae albae indiderunt." Exot. lib. iv. cat. 



% 



d 



p. 4 



Hiji. AjoI. i. p. 460. «* Phil. Tranf. No. 192. p. 462. 



V 



. t P' 443- Though Murray has here faid, <^ Cortex hujus eft Canella alba oiKcina- 

 rum," yet the London College has not availed itfel.'' of this authority, no botanical 

 reference being given to Canella alba in the new pharmacopoeia. 



* Among thefe we may notice Plukenet,, who, fpeaking of thefe two trees, fays, 

 « Varje inter fe plurlmum diverf2e plantae per illarum ignorationem plane confunduntur." 

 Aimag. Mant. p. 40. 



. f Sp, Plant, ed.i.p.^^i. t See his Hort. Cliff. 448. and Mat. Md, 



* Hort, Keiv, vol, ii. p. 12K, 



■ . ^ ^ . The 



