123 



milar, altliough their grammars uru radically dift'erent. That the 

 work of comparing the two languages etymologically would be 

 easy, had it not been for the long stay of the Romans in Gaul and 

 Britain, which must be supposed to have made a deep impression 

 upon the language of the natives. That nevertheless much Latin 

 words exist, to the primary meaning of which the Cumhrian scho- 

 lar alone possesses the key, and that a long list of words belonging 

 to such a class must prove that some cognate branch of his language 

 must have entered into the original composition of the Latin tongue. 

 That the strength of the proof must depend upon the extent of the 

 induction. 



2. On the Sources and Composition of the different kinds of 



Gamboge. By Dr Christison. 



3. On the Botanical Origin of Gamboge. By Dr Graham. 



Gamboge was first made known by Clusius about the commence^ 

 ment of the seventeenth century, as a concrete juice from China. 

 About the middle of the same century, Bontius conceived be had 

 traced it to a particular species of Euphorbia, growing in Java and 

 in Siam ; from the latter of which countries the whole gamboge of 

 commerce was at that time obtained. About the close of that cen- 

 tury Hermann announced that gamboge was produced by two spe- 

 cies of trees growing in Ceylon, which have been since often con- 

 founded together, but which are now designated by the names 

 Garcinia Gambogixt, and Stalagmitis Gawbogioides. About the mid- 

 dle of last century, gamboge was referred by Linnaeus to the for- 

 mer of these plants, and his reference was generally admitted. 

 But about thirty years later. Professor Murray of Gottingen con- 

 ceived he had traced it satisfactorily from the specimens collected 

 by Koenig in Ceylon, and information obtained by the same bo- 

 tanist in Siam, to a new species wliich he called Stalagmitis gam- 

 bogioides. 



Dr Graham shows, from specimens and drawings sent from Cey- 

 lon, both by Mrs Colonel Walker to himself, and by David Ander- 

 son Blair, Esq. to the late Dr Duncan, that the plant producing 

 Ceylon gamboge is neither Garcinia gambogia, as Linnseus thought, 

 nor Xantliochymus ovalijolius, as conjectured by Dr Wight and Mr 

 Arnott, nor Stalagmitis gambogioides, according to Murray and 

 Koenig, but is a species described by Lamarck and Gartner under 

 the name of Garcinia or Mangostana morella, although it differs 



