266" Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



Cheru Chunda, which Linnaeus did not at first quote ; although 

 in the Species Plantarum, as copied by the younger Burman, he 

 afterwards considered it as the same with the plant of Dillenius, 

 and removed the Malabathu to the S. mammosum, also an Ame- 

 rican plant (Fl. Ind. 56.). The Cheru Chunda and Solanum fru- 

 tescens {Burm. Thes. Zeyl. 220.) of India now therefore became 

 united with the American plant of Dillenius, common in the con- 

 servatories of Europe, and was called S. indicum, until Willde- 

 now and Lamarck omitted the Cheru Chunda, which, although 

 one of the most common and generally diffused plants in India, 

 seems for a long time to have been altogether neglected. I 

 should, however, have no doubt in calling it Solanum indicum, 

 had not Linnaeus, when he first defined the species, since called 

 S. indicum {Fl. Zeyl. 94.), meant the Malabathu, and not the 

 Tubuthu of the Ceylonese, which last is the Cheru Chunda. But 

 allowing that Linnaeus afterwards considered the Tubuthu (Burm. 

 Thes. Zeyl. t. 102.) to be his S. indicum, as is admitted by La- 

 marck and Willdenow, although he may have erroneously quoted 

 for the same an American plant of Dillenius, and although this 

 is common in the gardens of Europe, are we to consider the 

 American plant as the true S. indicum, and to give other names 

 to the Indian plants of Burman, one or other of which Linnaeus 

 no doubt meant to describe ? This indeed is what has been done 

 by M. Dunal (Enc. Meth. Sup. iii. 743.), who properly separates 

 the American and Indian plants, and gives their synonyma cor- 

 rectly ; but he calls the American S. indicum, and the Indian 

 S. violaceum, an unfortunate name, as the flowers are often white, 

 and as already occupied by another plant {Brown Nov. Holl. i. 

 445.). In the former name he is supported by the Hortus Kew- 

 ensis (i. 402.), which for the S. indicum quotes the plant of Dil- 

 lenius alone, continuing however to state, that this grows in both 

 Indies : but who ever saw in India this plant of Dillenius ? 



There 



