184 Dr. R. Wight on the Laurus Cassia of Linndms* 



to any form of that species^ and they besides differ specifically 

 from each other. 



The Cinnamomum perpetuo florens appears to me a perfectly 

 distinct species^ very nearly allied to, if not actually identical 

 with, Nees's own species C. sulphur atum, of which I have now 

 got specimens from Ceylon. This I infer from the appearance 

 of the plant as represented in the figure, for if any dependence 

 is to be placed on the description, it is impossible to admit it 

 into the genus. On this however, I do not feel disposed to 

 place much reliance, as it was not the practice a century ago, 

 when the description was written, to examine the structure of 

 flowers with the same care that is now bestowed. Should it 

 be objected, that the species I quote as the C. perpetuo florens 

 is clothed with yellowish pubescence, w hich is not mentioned 

 by Burman, then I have another from the same country (Cey- 

 lon) perfectly glabrous, agreeing in the form of its leaves, but 

 differing in having more numerous and smaller flowers, which 

 may be substituted, and that I do not think, more than the 

 other, a variety of the genuine cinnamon tree. 



The Malabar plant Carua (Hort. Mai. 1. tab. 5?), on the 

 other hand, I consider a very passable figure of a plant, in my 

 herbarium named, by Nees himself, Cinnamomum iners ; but, 

 whether or not I am right in the species to which I have re- 

 ferred it, I can have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion 

 that it is not referable to any form of the C. Zeylanicum ; 

 neither can I agree with him in thinking the plant figured 

 under the name of Laurus Cassia in the ^ Botanical Maga- 

 zine,^ No. 1636, is referable to the Ceylon species, but is I 

 think very hke the Malabar one, the only species of the genus 

 to which the name Cassia should be applied, if that name is 

 still to be retained in botanical nomenclature, as being the 

 only one of the three associated species known to produce that 

 drug. To another plate of the ^Botanical Magazine^ {Laurus 

 Cinnamomum, No. 2028) I also refer here, and feel greatly at a 

 loss to account for its introduction into that work under a dif- 

 ferent name from the preceding. The plant which Nees formerly 

 considered the Laurus Cassia, but now calls Cinnamomum 

 aromaticum, from China, is a very nearly allied species, but 

 is distinct, and furnishes much of the bark sold in the Euro- 



