84 



fore, had been previously known to the scientific world. 



Dr. M. remarks, "when the plant was first shewn 

 to me, it was suggested as the probable source of the drug 

 known as African olibanum, now occasionally seen in con- 

 tinental commerce, but quite superseded in British trade by 

 the Indian olibanum of the Boswellia ; the source of the 

 African olibanum is unknown. The gum-resin of the ceradia 

 is much softer and more aromatic than the African ohbanum, 

 — at least than the specimen in my museum, — but it is some- 

 what remarkable, that, on looking at my sample of the drug, 

 I found in it pieces of a bark quite undistinguishable from 

 that of the ceradia, and I know that my African ohbanum 

 is a very old specimen, and may have lost by keeping. I 

 should rather say that the gum-resin resembles some of the 

 kinds of elemi, and might be substituted for it." 



Dr. M. believes it to contain soluble oil, resin, and that 

 peculiar substance allied to, but not identical with, gum, which 

 elemi and similar drugs contain. Dr. Maclagan said that 

 Professor Lindley had seen the plant in flower lately, (first 

 found in Chatsworth Conservator) 7 ), and that it was de- 

 scribed in the February number of the Botanical Register 

 as belonging to quite a different order — viz., the Composite. 

 Professor Lindley mentions that Dr. Maclagan had sent 

 him the first dead specimen in December last, covered with 

 a peculiar red Lichen — the Dufourea flammea — when he 

 found it impossible to guess what manner of plant this 

 curious production might be. Dr. Watson's specimens were 

 also covered with a brownish lichen. Professor Lindley 

 had since, from seeing it in flower at the Horticultural So- 

 ciety, been able to determine the natural order of it, which 

 he found to be allied to those fleshy-stemmed shrubs from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, now termed Kleinias (the old 

 Cacalias). Bright veinless leaves, of rather a succulent 

 character, grow in clusters at the end of the horns or 

 branches; the pale yellow flower grows from between the 

 footstalks of the leaves supported on shorter similar pedicles. 



The Professor states that " the resin when burned was 

 totally destitute of fragrance, and evidently had nothing to 



