on the Ilorlus MalakaricHSi Part I '. 479 



The circumstance of producing the substance called Tabax'ir 

 or Tabashir, cannot, I believe, be considered as affording a spe- 

 cific character: because I am persuaded that this substance, very 

 minutely divided, pervades most parts of all the species that J 

 have seen ; and it is only under particular circumstances thai it 

 collects in the hollow joints of the plant, forming considerable 

 masses, such as are employed as a drug. Many thousand plants 

 may be cut without finding a morsel : and, so far as I could 

 learn, it is chiefly found in woods or thickets consisting most I v 

 of it alone, and growing oir a dry stony soil, where the plant 

 does not reach to a great size, and has a strong tendency to 

 flower ; for the cultivated Bambu very seldom does so. Most of 

 the older writers taking (he production of this drug as their spe- 

 cific character, their synonyma may be rejected, as common to 

 several species. 



Linnaeus contented himself with making one species ; and in 

 the Flora Zeylanica quoted for this the Ily of the Hortus Malaba- 

 ricus, adding no reference to other authors that could render us 

 doubtful of what he meant. Since then, however, to the 77// of 

 the Hortus Malabar icus, botanists in describing the Bambusa arun- 

 dinacea have added the Arundarbor vasaria of Ilumphius. As J 

 consider the two plants quite distinct, I am at a loss to say which 

 is the Bambusa or Bambos arundinacea (Willd. Sp: PL ii. 245. 

 Enc. Meth. viii. 701). Dr. Roxburgh seems to have been aware 

 that they could not be the same, and only quotes the Ily for his 

 Bambusa arundinacea (Hart. Bcng. 25.) ; but then he seems to 

 have some way imagined that the Ily represented the Bambu 

 most commonly planted about villages, and which is destitute of 

 thorns, while in fact the Ily has thorns, and I have little doubt 

 is the same with the Bhcru or Beheor Baugsa of the Bengalese, 

 which in the Hortus Bengalensis is quoted for Dr. Roxburgh's 

 Bambusa spinosa. It is true that for this Dr. Roxburgh also 



3 q 2 quotes 



