238 Dr. Francis Hamitton’s Commentary 
other reason, I should altogether reject, until demonstrated, the supposition of 
a tree found spontaneous in Malabar, being spontaneously produced in Crete 
under the form of a shrub. 
Plukenet separates the Pee Vetti from the plant of Alpinus, but joins it with 
the Solanum verticillatum of J. Bauhin, and the Solanum somniferum verticil- 
latum of C. Bauhin, and the Solanwm somniferum of Parkinson, to which he 
annexes an American plant mentioned by Hernandez and Ray; and these 
now constitute the Physalis somnifera, said to be a native of Mexico, Crete, 
and Spain (Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1020.), in which I suspect some mistake. 
The elder Burman described a plant of Ceylon, which he called Alkekengi 
somniferum Cydonice folio, flore et fructu rubris (Thes. Zeyl. 10.). This, I think, 
I know well, and it is totally different from the Pe Vetti, which Burman enu- 
merates among the synonyma, joining to it not only the synonyma given by 
Commeline, but those given by Plukenet; that is to say, he considers the 
Solanum verticillatum of Plukenet (Alm. 352.) as the same with the * Solanum 
verticillatum virginiense latifolium molle, floribus obsolete rubris, baccis luteis" 
of the same author (/.c.). It is probable that Burman was induced to do this 
by Plukenet's having included among the synonyma of both plants some that 
belonged to a plant of America, and some that belonged to the plant of Asia. 
The latter I know, and it is, no doubt, that found in Ceylon. 
Linneus in the Flora Zeylanica (96.) describes the plant of Ceylon under 
the name of “ Physalis caule fruticoso tereti, foliis ovatis integerrimis, floribus 
confertis," adding to it not only the Pe Vetti, but the plant of Southern Europe. 
He, however, quotes none of the American synonyma. 
The younger Burman, however, copying probably the Species Plantarum, 
gives us the Pee Vetti and the shrubby plant of the Thesaurus Zeylanicus for 
the Physalis flexuosa (Fl. Ind. 54.), rejecting not only all the American syno- 
nyma, but those belonging to the plant of Southern Europe. Nor has any 
change been made since by Willdenow (Sp. Pl. i. 1020.). M. Lamarck, how- 
ever, (Enc. Méth. ii. 100.) returned to the errors of the Flora Zeylanica, and 
makes the Pee Vetti not only the same with the Physalis flexuosa, but con- 
siders this as a mere variety of the Physalis somnifera of Europe. 
In the Hortus Kewensis (i. 393.) the Pe Vetti continues to be quoted for the 
Physalis flexuosa, although there is not the smallest chance that the plant in 
