

5J4 Mr. Sabine's Observations 



der, not being accompanied by any other note : it does not seem 

 to agree with any plant described by Plukenet ; it is only a small 

 specimen with but one flower, very much like the imperfect spe- 

 cimen I have mentioned of the Linnaean Herbarium. The third 

 specimen is of considerable importance ; it occupies the whole 

 of page 116 of the book; by a note in the same old writing 

 above cited, it is referred to the Matricaria Japonica maxima, 

 flore multiplici flavescente, Shamunty Malabarorum of the Amal- 

 theum, page 142, which is not quoted by Linnaeus, though it 

 immediately precedes the Matricaria Sinensis, which he makes a 

 synonym of his Chrysanthemum Indicum ; he therefore, I ima- 

 gine, did not think it belonged to this plant. The specimen is 

 more like a Chinese Chrysanthemum* than any thing hitherto 

 noticed ; and if the note referring it to the Matricaria Japonica 

 maxima be correct, we have a synonym probably referable to our 

 Chinese Chrysanthemum, not adopted by Linnaeus for his Chry- 

 santhemum Indicum, though it had come under his observation. 

 No specimen of the Chrysanthemum Madraspatanum of the Al- 

 magest um is to be found in this book. 



If the omission of a reference to Plukenet's Matricaria Japo- 

 nica maxima, flore multiplici flavescente, as above stated, can be 

 considered any evidence that Linnaeus did not consider it refe- 

 rable to his Chrysanthemum Indicum, the passing over another 

 plant of the same author will be decisive of the question of dif- 

 ference in the mind of Linnaeus ; for there can be no doubt that 

 this latter is actually a Chinese Chrysanthemum. The plant I 

 allude to is thus described at page 243 of the Almagestum ; 



* It will be very desirable that this plant should, if possible, be obtained from China ; 

 it has flowers of a moderate size, not quilled, and fully double, similar to the Rose or 

 Buff Chinese Chrysanthemum, with particularly short footstalks, by which the flowers 

 appear imbedded in the leaves; and they grow from the alae of the leaves, lower down 

 on the branches than in those varieties now in our gardens. 



*' Main- 



