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XVII. Observations on the Durion, Durio zibethinus of Linnceus. 

 By Mr. Charles Kb' nig, F.L.S. 



Read December 6, 1803. 





JL he vegetable genus which constitutes the object of this Paper, 

 and of which I had an opportunity of examining the flowers, fruit, 

 and a small branch, through the kindness of the Pit. Hon. Sir 

 Joseph Banks, to whom they were sent from Amboyna by Mr. 

 Christopher Smith, F. L. S. ranks high in the number of those 

 which have a just claim to re-examination; for the characters 

 hitherto attributed to it are vague and erroneous. Linnaeus, who 

 first introduced the Durio as a genus in the thirteenth edition of 

 his Sj/stenia Plantaritm, had not seen any part of the plant ; he 

 therefore took the generic character from Rumpf 's Herbarium 

 Amboinense : a work very useful, upon the whole, for ascertaining 

 the general habit and the history of the vegetables of which it 

 treats, but scarcely in any instance sufficient, either by its deli- 

 neations or descriptions, to convey an adequate idea of the parts 

 of a plant, or to be depended on for establishing generic charac- 

 ters. The fact is, that Rumpf 's figure of the flowers of the Durion 

 does not even express their habit ; nor can any knowledge be 

 derived from his description, which, as may be naturally ex- 

 pected, bears testimony of the period in which it was composed. 

 But the Latin translation which is added to this work misleads 

 still more than the Dutch original. It is r I suppose, from con- 

 sulting this translation that Linnaeus describes the ovarium of 

 the Durion as stipitatc, which is contrary to what I have observed ; 



nor, 



