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V. An Inquiry into the Genus of the Tree called by Pona Abelicea 

 cretica. By James Edward SmitU, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S. 



Read March 18, 1806. 



Botanists in investigating the tropical climates, have found 

 there a copious harvest of arborescent plants, whose profusion, 

 splendour and importance have, in a great measure, diverted 

 their attention from the more diminutive and less ostentatious 

 tribes of vegetables. On the other hand those situated in less 

 luxuriant regions, have, in bending the chief part of their atten- 

 tion to the minute and intricate plants of such countries, too 

 often slighted the apparently few and easy ones which were pre- 

 sumed to require little scientific examination. Hence we have 

 been made acquainted with but a small part of the mosses, 

 lichens, or other unornamental plants of hot countries, while 

 the trees of cold ones have experienced a similar kind of neglect. 

 I speak, however, in general terms only; for the curious and am- 

 ple discoveries of a Swartz and a Menzies afford an exception 

 to the former part of my position, as the labours of an Ehrhart 

 do to the latter. Some allowance indeed is to be made for the 

 difficulties of studying the species of Populus, Salix, Betula, 

 Ulmus, &c. arising from the different seasons of their flowering 

 and leafing, as well as their sexual differences. On the same 

 ground I would apologize for those naturalists who have, since 

 the days of Pona and Clusius, visited Crete without taking any 

 notice of their Abelicea, or Bastard Sandal-wood, a tree which 

 * though 



