104 THE ARGAN TREE OF MAROCCO, 



by the name adopted from Breynius's * Lycio similis fratex Indicus 

 spinosuSj Buxi folio " (which^ as already observed, Willdenow con- 

 sidered to be his Macourtia sepiariuy from India), and of wliicli the 

 flowers and fruit were unknown to the author. If this were the Argan^ 

 it was in cultivation in Holland as early as 1697. At a period not 

 much later, viz. in 1711, according to Hortus Kewensis, it was intro- 

 duced into England: ^^ Cult. 1711, by the Duchess of Beaufort, Br. 

 Mus. H, S. 141. foL 39*.'* It is indicated as a stove-plant. 



Sir James Smith, article Sideroxylon spinosum in Rees* Cyclopaedia 

 (1819), throws no new light upon the subject; he omits the reference 

 to Commelyn. Eetz, in Obs. Bot. vol. ri. p. 26, refers the plant to EIcbo- 

 dendron, in which he is followed by Willdenow and by Schousboe, 

 which latter author has given by far the fullest and best account of 



the plant botanically and economically. 



M. Correa de Serra, Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 1809, 

 torn. viii. p. 393. tab. v. f. 1, has published a very good analysis of 

 the fruit, with very brief characters and no observations. At length 

 Mr. Brown, " Botanicorum facile princeps," in his iuvahaable Pro- 

 dromus, under his Observations on Sapotecje^ says, " Sideroxylon spino- 

 sum J L., fructu valde diversum proprium hujus ordinis genus efficit ; 

 and, acting upon his suggestion, Kcemer and Schultes, * Systema Ve- 

 getabilium,* vol. iv. p. xlvi. and 503, have formed of this plant a new 

 genus, Argania^ in which they have been followed by Endlicher and Al- 

 phonse De Candolle. In this latter work a very fuU generic character 

 is given, which needs not here be repeated. We are happily able to 

 publish for the first time a figure of a flowering specimen, (gathered in 

 Marocco by Broussonet, and deposited in the Herbarium of the late 

 Professor Gouan, which came into our possession,) as well as of the fruit 

 and seed; and we conclude this notice by a brief description of the 

 genus and species. 



Argania, Bcem. et ScL 

 Nat. Ord. Sapotaceje. 



Gen. Char. Calyx 5-partitus, lobis subaequalibus rotundatis imbricatis, 

 basi bracteatis. Corolla brevis, rotato-infundibuliformis, profunde 



* The abbreviation "Br. Mus. H. S. signifies the Sloaneau Hortus Siccus, kept 

 in the British ^luseum; from whence much information, principally concerning the 

 plants cultivated by the Duchess of Beaufort, has been obtained." — Hort. Kew. ed. 1. 

 Introd. 



91 



