THE AEGAN TREE OF MAEOCCO, 103 



works to plants as being identical, which have no relationship with it ; 

 or to descriptions which, if the same, exhibit little or no resemblance- 



The first Botanist who appears to have noticed this plant is Linnaeus, 

 who, in the ^Hortus Cliffortianus,' in 1737, described it from dried 

 specimens, under the name of Sideroxylon sfmomn. " From Clifford's 

 Herbarium," observes Mr. Dryander*, "now in the possession of Sir 

 Joseph Banks, the Jr^an was taken up by Linne in his 'Hortus 

 Cliffortianus ; ' though most of the synonyms are wrongf, and conse- 

 quently the locus natalis (utraque India), which is deduced from them. 

 The specimen in Linne's Herbarium, under the name of Sideroxylon 

 ^inosum, is without flowers, and it is impossible to tell with any cer- 

 tainty what it is. Clifford's Herbarium is therefore the only authority 

 by which this species can be ascertained." His Bliamnm Siculus, in 

 the Appendix to the third volume of the twelfth edition of the Sy sterna 

 Nature, is, we are assured by Mr. Dryander, " the Argan, or Olwe- 

 tree of Morocco (see Host's Efterretninger ora Marokos, p. 284), as 

 appears from the specimen in Linne's Herbarium, which has a ticket 

 affixed, with the name of Argan of Morocco, and which I have also com- 

 pared with specimens in Sir Joseph Banks' Herbarium from Morocco/' 

 The description too of Linnaeus is very correct. He errs only in con- 

 sidering the plant to be the same as the Rhamnus Siculus pentaphyl- 

 los of Boccone (Ehus pentaphyllum, Desf,), which has folia quiuata, 

 which latter he introduces into the specific character, but not into the 

 description ; and he erroneously followed Boccone in giving Sicily as the 



native country in addition to Africa, and in adopting the specific name 

 Siculus, 



In the * Species Plantarum ' of Linnseus, Malabar alone is mentioned 

 ^s the native country of tlie Sideroicyloit sjnnosum. Nevertheless, with 

 the exception of Willdenow, who rejects it altogether as " planta valde 

 dubia, forte nuUibi obAia," most of the older authors adopt this name 

 for the Arga7i of Marocco. Under it, it appears in the first edition 

 of * Hortus Kewensis,' with the reference to ' Species Plantarum ' of 

 Linnaeus, and to Commelyn, Hort. Amstelod. tab. 83, where however 

 nothing is said of its native country, further than may be surmised 



* Remarks " Oa Genera and Species of Plants wliich occur twice or three times 

 yuider different names in Professor Gmeliu's edition of Linnseus's Systeraa Natura;," 

 in Trans, of Linnean Society, vol. ii. p. 225. 



+ The Linnecan synonyms are considered by Willdenow, as far as Commdyn, 

 Plakenct, Rhcede and Burmann are concerned, to belong to Flacouriia sejnaria. 



