232 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



the Frutex sinensis &c. of Plukenet {Amalth. 100. t. 408. /. 3.) 

 has a better claim. With respect, however, to the Rhamnus zeyla- 

 nicus of Burman, it cannot be the Rhamnus lineatus of M. Poiret, 

 the flowers of which are divided into five, while those of Bur- 

 man's plant are divided into four. The division in the former 

 would agree with the description of the Niriiri ; and in the figure 

 of this both the calyx and corolla in some of the flowers may be 

 distinctly observed : but then the Rhamnus lineatus as described 

 by M. Poiret has only one stylus, and the figures of the leaves 

 in Plukenet's Amaltheum (t. 408. /. 3.) is by no means like the 

 Niruri. It is true, that the Rhamnus lineatus is by Willdenow 

 made a Zizyphus, and should therefore have two styli (although he 

 places it in the order Monogynia), in which respect it agrees 

 with the Niruri ; but then there is nothing in the foliage of the 

 Niruri like the costa opposite traiisverscB, from whence the Rham- 

 nus lineatus derives its name ; nor are its leaves terminated by a 

 small spine, but are large and blunt exactly like those of the 

 Rhamnus zeylanicus of Burman, which, as M. Poiret observes, 

 differ a good deal from those of his Rhamnus lineatus. On the 

 whole I am inclined to think, that the Niruri is really a Rham- 

 nus ; for although it has two styli, yet its flowers seem to want 

 the flat discus of the Zizyphus, and its fruit is evidently a berry 

 containing several seeds, and not a drupa containing one nut. 

 Several Rhamni, it must be observed, and in particular the cir- 

 cumscissus, the nearest plant to the Niruri that I know, have two 



styli. 



HUMMATU, p. 47. fig. 28. 



Commeline justly observes, that this and the two following are 

 all species of Datura or Stramonium ; but he mentions no cir- 

 cumstance, by which we can refer the synonyma of Acosta and 

 Clusius, which he quotes, to this species. That of C. Bauhin 

 {Solanum foetidum pomo spinoso ohlongo) does not belong to this, 



which 



