TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



I. Some Information respecting the Lignum Hhodium of Pococke's 

 Travels, in a Letter to Alexander MacLeay, Esq. F.R.S.Sec. L.S. 

 By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. Pr.L.S., ^c. 



Read February 21, 1815. 

 Deak Sir, 

 A POINT of botanical history has just been cleared up by my 

 examinations of the manuscripts and dried specimens of the late 

 Dr. J. Sibthorp, which, not being admissible into the Flora Graca, 

 I think proper to rescue from oblivion, by requesting you to lay 

 it before the Linnean Society. 



Pococke, in his well-known " Description of the East," vol. ii. 

 part 1. p. 230, speaking of Cyprus, has the following passage: 

 " " Most of the trees in the island are evergreen ; but it is most 

 famous for the tree called by the natives Xylon Effendi, the Wood 

 of our Lord, and by naturalists Lignum Cyprinum and Lignum 

 Rhodium, because it grows in these two islands. It is called also 

 the Rose Wood, by reason of its smell. Some say it is in other 

 parts of the Levant, and also in the isle of Martinico. It grows 

 like the Platanus or Plane-tree, and bears a seed or mast like 

 that, only the leaf and fruit are rather smaller. The botanists 



VOL. XIX. B call 



