not seen the fruit ; but since my return to India, I have met 

 with it in a perfectly ripe state, and find the plant must now 

 be referred to the genus Tabernajmontana, where, I think, it 

 forms a new species." 



The Sages of Ceylon having demonstrated, as they say, 

 that Paradise was in that island, and having therefore found 

 it necessary to point out the forbidden fruit of the garden of 

 Eden, assure us that it was borne by a species of this genus, 

 the Divi Ladner of their country, and probably the plant 

 before us. The proof they find of this discovery consists in 

 the beauty of the fruit, said to be tempting, in the fragrance 

 of the flower, and in its still bearing the marks of the teeth 

 of Eve. Till that offence was committed, which brought 

 misery on man, we are assured that the fruit was delicious : 

 but from that time forward it became poisonous, as it now 

 remains. 



Upon turning to the genus Tabcrnsemontana in Dietrich's 

 new Synopsis Plantarum, a notable example is to be found of 

 the care with which such compilers execute their task. In 

 the preface the author assures his readers that he has col- 

 lected together all the species published up to his time, in 

 doing which he has employed all diligence, assisted by his 

 own library and those of Gottingen and Weimar. On the 

 faith of this assurance his readers paid their thirty-six shillings 

 for the two first volumes of the book. In this genus, however, 

 it turns out that the whole of the species (14 in number) 

 published by Dr. Wallich in 1829, are left out by Dr. Die- 

 trich writing in 1839. Now those species were not described 

 in the corner of some unknown Journal, but in the pages of 

 the Botanical Register, a work which we will engage to say 

 contains as many new species of plants as any periodical that 

 has been published, and which no working Botanist can 

 possibly avoid consulting. So much for accuracy ! The spe- 

 cies plantarum of Ilomer and Schultes, and of Sprengel, 

 were thought to be as bad as ingenuity could make them ; 

 but Dr. Dietrich has proved that worse books may be written. 



In cultivation it requires the moist stove. If cuttings 

 from it are put in silver sand under a bell-glass, with a little 

 bottom heat, they strike readily. The soil used in potting 

 should be rich, but at the same time of such a nature as not 



