TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
+ 
"wr Some Information respecting /the Lignum Rhodium of Pococke’s 
- Travels, in a Letter to AlezaWder MacLeay, Esq. F.R.S. Sec. L. S. 
By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. Pr. L.S., 4c. 
Read February 21, 1815. 
Dear Str, | 
POINT of botanical history has just been cleared up by my 
examinations of the manuscripts and dried specimens of the late 
Dr. J. Sibthorp, which, not being admissible into the Flora Graca, 
. I think proper to rescue from oblivion, by requesting you to lay 
it before the Linnean Society. Lf 
Pococke, in his well-known * Description of the East," vol. ii. 
part 1. p. 230, speaking of Cyprus, has the following passage: 
“ Most of the trees in the island are evergreen; but it is most 
famous for the tree called by the natives Xylon Effendi, the Wood 
of our Lord, and by naturalists Lignum Cyprinum and Lignum — — - p 
Rhodium, because it grows in these two islands. It is called also 
the Rose Wood, by reason of its smell. Some say it is in other 
parts of the Levant, and also in the isle of Martinico. It grows 
like the Platanus or Plane-tree, and bears a seed or mast like 
that, only the leaf and fruit are rather smaller. -The botanists 
VOL. XII. B call 
