o?i the Malabar Cardamom. 253 



and, as wc find that he sailed immediately afterwards to Java, 

 it is not an unreasonable conjecture, that he may have sent 

 home Bontius's plant from that island, and that the specimen, 

 through some hurry either of the collector himself, or of his 

 master, when it arrived in Sweden, niay have been wrongly 

 noted as being from India. Be this as it may, it is clear that 

 Linna;us has confounded the Javanese Cardamom with that of 

 Malabar, having quoted both Bontius and Van Rheede as sy- 

 nonyms, and not only tab. 4 and 5 (vol. 11.) of the latter, but 

 also tab. 6, which confirms the supposition of his having copied 

 Burmann's reference upon trust at that time, for Burmann had 

 been guilty of the same error. We find Linnaeus adding to all 

 this inaccuracy, by quoting also Barrelier, 139t>, tab. 571, which 

 plate is obviously copied from the figure entitled " Amomo legi- 

 timo degli antichi," and prefixed to Marogna's commentary on 

 the subject, accompanying Pona's " Monte Baldo descritto." 

 The pharmaceutical synonym (subjoined to the others) of " Car- 

 damomttm minus" precludes all doubt of his intending to point 

 out the plant which produces the common Cardamom of our 

 shops. The Flora Zeylanica, however, is known to have been 

 written in haste, and its author discovered some of the mistakes 

 into which he had been led, before he published his Species 

 Plantarum, because he there discards many of his former re- 

 ferences, but amongst these, unfortunately, tab. 4 and 5 of the 

 Hortiis Malabaricus, retaining only tab. 6. This last-mentioned 

 error is unaccountable, for the very same plate is referred to by 

 him for Amomam Grainim Faradisi (with which it will probably 

 be found to agree very well) ; and it is curious to observe that 

 this gross inaccuracy exists also in his editor Reichard. To com- 

 plete the confusion of our illustrious author in regard to the 

 Cardamom, in his second edition of the Species Flantarum Jie 

 VOL. X. 2 L not 



