190 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



20. t. 364./. 2.), \he Arbor Indica Lauri amplioribus foliis obtusis 

 e regione binis, fioribus Jasmini, summo ramulo umbellatim positis, 

 ex Insula Johanna. Now, although Plukenet compares this to 

 the Tsjovanni Amelpodi {Hort. Mai. vi. t. 47. )j ^ plant having 

 five stamina, yet there can be no doubt of its being an Ixora very 

 nearly allied to the Flamma sylvarum peregrhia, but sufficiently 

 distinct from the Schetti, the Flamma sylvarum, and the Jasminum 

 ftore tetrapetalo ; so that botanists had now four species of Ixora 

 with red flowers, all confounded under one name. 



Willdenow left matters as they stood in Burman's Flora Indica : 

 but M. Lamarck {FjUC. Meth. iii. 343.), leaving out the plants of 

 the elder Burman, Hermann, and Rumphius, joins to the Schetti 

 the two synonyma of Ray, and the two of Plukenet. Not hav- 

 ing the work of Ray, I cannot speak to that point ; but M. La- 

 marck thus removed two plants confounded with the Schetti, and 

 as the Flamma sylvarum peregrina is different from the Jasminum 

 jlore tetrapetalo, he in fact freed us from three interlopers. Still 

 however he retained the Arbor Indica ex Insula Johanna of Plu- 

 kenet, which I think certainly different from the Jasminum indi- 

 cum ^-c. of that author ; and this last has undoubtedly the best 

 claim to be considered as the same with the Schetti, although, as 

 I have said, there is great room to suppose that the plants cyf 

 Burman and Rheede are difl'erent. 



In the Hortus Kewensis (i. 244.) none of our Indian botanists 

 are quoted for the Ixora coccinea, owing probably to the difficulty 

 which occurred in reconciling the discordant synonyma ; for it 

 is not easy to say, even setting the Species Plantarum entirely 

 aside, whether in the Flora Zeylanica Linnaeus really meant the 

 plant of Burman and Hermann, or the Schetti. The former is 

 most probably the case, as it was the collection of Hermann 

 which he described in the Flora Zeylanica. 

 . Finally, in the Flora Indica (i. 385.) Dr. Roxburgh describes 



four 



