85 



do with any of the drugs to which the name of Olibanum 

 has heen applied." The absence of fragrance in the resin, 

 as above quoted from so high an authority, was remarkably 

 at variance with the fact of the fragrant odour of the resin 

 which Dr. Watson burned before the society. The article 

 must vary : possibly the specimens may represent' different 

 species of the same genus. 



The name of the shrub is Ceradia furcata, derived 

 from the Greek and Latin terms for its horny shape. If 

 the gum-resin proves, on further examination, to be what 

 Dr. Dickinson seemed inclined, from his own observations, 

 to consider it, as possibly one of those gum-resins men- 

 tioned so often in scripture under the general term of 

 frankincense ; then the general name being retained as 

 characterising the plant, the specific name might, perhaps, 

 be changed to one in accordance with the qualities of the 

 exuded juice, instead of being, as it at present stands, 

 scarcely more than a reiteration of the generic cha- 

 racter. The forked horn plant may become the Ceradia 

 thurifera, or something of like meaning. Dr. Watson 

 observed, that on going to the Botanic Garden here, he 

 had been gratified at rinding under the watchful care of the 

 conservator, Mr. Shepherd, a young plant actually in leaf 

 which he had received from Mr. Hadwen three months ago, 

 with but the faintest hope of its being alive or rearable ; 

 however, it shot forth its green tufts, under glass, and now 

 looks healthy and promising, and probably will send out its 

 little yellow flower in the course of the ensuing summer. 

 The horns are much stouter than the dried, and evidently, 

 much older plants of Dr. Watson's ; their three-forked or 

 trichotomous extremities, each with its crest of leaves, 

 corresponded exactly with the new nomenclature of the 

 exotic ; the bark was also smooth and void of lichen. The 

 old dry shrubs did not show the same undeviating partiality 

 for the number three, some branches being content with 



