REMARKS ON LAURUS CASSIA. 337 
earlier predecessors were but indifferent describers of plants 
and often very loose in their quotations of figures as synonyms, 
an error into which Linnzus fell about as often as any of his 
contemporaries. He seems to have had an idea that deline- 
ations were generally at best but approximations to the 
truth, so that if a figure exhibited even a remote similarity 
| toa plant before him, especially if from the same country, he. 
might with safety quote it as a synonym. Bearing this in 
. mind, we can easily account for a number of errors to which 
his incorrect synonyms have given rise. The present instance 
. affords an excellent example of what I have here stated, and 
one which, but for the discovery of Mr Marshall, might bave 
.. long remained undetected. ; 
— In Herman’s herbarium of Ceylon plants, he (Linnæus) 
found one bearing the native names of ** Dawalkurundu, 
Nikadawala," under which it is referred to, or described in 
Herman’s Museum Zeylanicum. This he considered a species 
of Laurus, apparently from habit alone, and in his usual brief 
~ precise style calls it, ** Laurus foliis lanceolatis trinerviis nervis 
supra basin unitis ;" having previously described the true Cinna- 
mon, as “ Laurus foliis ovato-oblongis trinerviis basi nervos üni- 
entibus." The difference between the two, as indicated by the 
Names, seems very slight, merely depending on the one having 
F lanceolate leaves with the nerves united above the base; while 
n in the other the leaves are said to be ovato-oblong with the 
-nerves distinct to the base—discrepancies small indeed, and 
.. $üch as could never be of much avail in distinguishing the 
. One plant from the other, since they are both constantly 
. Wet with in different leaves on the same tree. Such being 
.. the case, it is not much to be wondered at that botanists 
. Should have been surprised by the boldness of Mr Marshall’s 
.. announcement, that two trees, believed to be of the same 
genus, and so nearly alike in their external forms, should 
Yet differ so very widely in their properties. But so it is, 
nd nothing can be more certain than that the fact is as he | 
* In proceeding to trace the history of the two species, aided - 
- Journ, of Bot. Vol. II. No. 15. August, 1840. — 2x ——— 
