REMARKS ON LAURUS CASSIA. 339 
the same time lanceolate and of a thinner texture than the 
d preceding (Cinnamon). The whole of his definition, in 
short, agrees most exactly with Mr Marshall’s description of 
the Cingalese Dawalkurundu, and leaves not a doubt that 
both had the same plant in view, and consequently that Mr 
Marshall is so far correct in saying that the bark of the 
3 Laurus Cassia of Linnzus possessed none of the qualities at- 
.. tributed to it. Hitherto all is clear, but now the chapter of 
errors begins. 
Had Linnzeus been permitted to exercise his own unbiassed 
judgment in this case, it is not improbable he would have 
. Avoided the mistake of assigning to a plant which, with all his 
. acuteness, he knew not how to distinguish from the Camphor- 
‘Wee, the credit of producing Cassia; or at all events would 
not have done so without some expression of doubt, so as stil] 
. to leave the question an open one. But, upon consulting 
~ Other authorities, he found in Burman's Thesaurus Zeylanicus 
— the figure of a species of Cinnamomum or Laurus, as he called 
v the genus, to which Burman had given the name of Cinna- 
m momum perpetuo florens, &c., and assigned to it the native name 
.. 9f Dawalkurundu, not as it appears from the specimen itself 
E having been so named, but because, being different from the 
. ue Cinnamon of which he had seen specimens and figures, 
pot he thought it an inferior, wild or jungle sort, and that it 
n must of necessity be the plant which Herman has described in 
— his Museum eylanicum, though the inflorescence differed much 
.. from the description, (a very essential point, which Burman 
. "émarked and endeavours to explain away,) and therefore 
.. Bave it the same Cingalese appellation. Linnzus’ specimen 
.. Rot being in flower, and the resemblance between the speci- 
[t men and figure being in other respects considerable, he had 
_ Not the means of detecting the discrepancy, and unsuspect- 
 ingly adopted Burman's figure and name as a synonym to his 
Plant. In Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus (1. tab. 57) he found 
the figure of another cinnamon, even more closely resembling - 
his plant in its general aspect than Burman's figure, this he —— 
also associated as a synonym; and Rheede’s plant beinglauded —— 
