194 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



really the Jasminum indicum <^c. of Plukenet (Aim. 196. Phyt. 

 t. 109. f' 2.)» then M. Lamarck's I. lanceolata may contain four 

 different species. As I have however said, he quotes Linnaeus 

 with doubt, and the plant of Plukenet he considers as at least a 

 remarkable variety, if it be not altogether distinct. The only 

 question therefore to determine is, whether M. Lamarck actually 

 meant the Bern Schetti or the Flamma sylvarum, if these be really 

 different, as there is reason to suppose, and this is not easily 

 done : for, although M. Lamarck had specimens of his Ixora 

 lanceolata, he evidently mixes in the description of the colours 

 the two accounts of Rheede and Rumphius, the colours in his 

 specimen having probably faded. My good friend Dr. Wallich 

 indeed, in a note on the Ixora fulgens of Roxburgh's Flora In- 

 clica (i. 387.), thinks that M. Lamarck meant the Flamma syl- 

 varum, and that therefore the I. fulgens, which is the Ixora lon- 

 gifolia of Sir J. E. Smith, is the same with the Ixora lanceolata 

 of Lamarck, excluding all the synonyma except the Flamma syl- 

 varum. This however seems to me very doubtful ; and I think 

 it probable, that M. Lamarck really saw the Bern Schetti, which 

 he places first in his list of synonyma. As therefore the Flamma 

 sylvarum should in propriety be called the Ixora longifolia, (Sir 

 J. E. Smith having published before Dr. Roxburgh,) the Bern 

 Schetti should be called I. lanceolata; for the Ixora alba of Lin- 

 naeus is probably the plant of Plukenet {Phyt. t. IO9. /. 2.). I 

 know indeed that at one time this was Dr. Roxburgh's opinion, 

 although in the Flora Indica he does not say so ; but it was on 

 this authority that he called the Ta-mou-tang of the Chinese the 

 Ixora alba {Fl. Lid. i. 389.), which induces Dr. Wallich in the 

 note to state, that it is widely different from the Ixora alba of 

 Linnaeus, meaning by this the Bern Schetti. 



Notwithstanding what I have said respecting the difference of 

 colour between the Bern Schetti and Flamma sylvarum, I have still 



some 



