306 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



Th6 elder Burman quotes the Ponnam Tagera for his Senna 

 vigintifoUa siliquis teretibus {Thes. Zeyl. 213.); but the figure 

 which he gives {t. 98.) represents the legumina very differently 

 from the figure of Rheede, and such as I have never seen ; espe- 

 cially as they would seem to be hairy, which we may conclude is 

 actually the case, as he quotes the Sophera congener planta, sili- 

 qua compressis hirsutis, seniinibus atris lucidis Jloribiis aureis of 

 Hermann. But the legumina of the Ponnam Tagera are smooth ; 

 and I therefore suspect that it is not the plant which Burman 

 describes, especially as it very rarely has near ten pair of leaf- 

 lets. Burman further considers, that Plukenet was mistaken in 

 considering the Indian Sophera as the same species with the 

 Sophera of Egypt described by Alpinus, J. Bauhin and Parkin- 

 son ; and he quotes several authorities supporting his opinion, 

 which I conclude is right. 



When Burman composed his Thesaurus Zeylanicus, he consi- 

 dered the Ponnam Tagera as the same with the Flosjlavus of the 

 Herbarium Amboinense (iv. 63. t. 65.) ; but of this error he became 

 sensible by the time that he published this great work of Rum- 

 phius, who merely says that the plants are of the same genus ; and 

 it is now admitted, as pointed out by Burman, that Rumphius 

 described the Ponnam Tagera by the name of Gaimaria acutifolia 

 {Herb. Amb. v. 283. t. 97. /• 1-)j although Rumphius himself,, 

 owing probably to his blindness, had been led to suppose that 

 his Gaiinaria acutifolia was the Tagera of Rheede. 



Linnaeus, in forming the Ponnam Tagera into a species with the 

 Senna vigintifoUa of Burman (F/. Zeyl. 150.), seems to have 

 adopted the opinion of Burman, that tWs was not the Sophera of 

 Egypt, as he quotes no author that could be supposed to de- 

 scribe the African species ; but unless Burman describes a plant 

 different from the Ponnam Tagera, and unless Linnaeus meant to 

 describe this plant of Burman, he gives a faulty specific cha- 

 racter 



