Dr Wight on the Laurus Cassia of Linnams. 23 



clares, that he knows not by what mark to distinguish it from 

 the Camphorifera japonensium, which in its foliage it greatly 

 resembles, but nothing can be more distinct than its inflores- 

 cence : that of the camphor tree being a panicle, having a 

 stalk as long as the leaves, while in Dawalkurundu, it may be 

 described as a subsessile capitulum, that is, five or six sessile 

 flowers congested on the apex of a very short peduncle, and 

 surrounded by an involucrum of four or five leaves ; several 

 of which capitula usually form verticels round the naked parts 

 of the branches where the leaves have fallen. 



He begins his description of Laurus Cassia,* by stating that 

 he at first considered it a variety of the antecedent (cinnamon), 

 but now that he knows not by what mark to distinguish it 

 from Camphorifera japonensium, for the leaves are thinner 

 than those of cinnamon, the nerves uniting above the base as in 

 Camphorifera, and are sprinkled beneath with a greyish dew or 

 bloom (suhtus rore ccesio illinita), as in the camphor-tree, and 

 are at the same time lanceolate, and of a thinner texture than 

 the preceding cinnamon. The whole of his description, in 

 short, agrees most exactly with Mr Marshall's description of 

 the Cingalese Dawalkurundu, and leaves not a doubt that both 

 had the same plant in view, and, consequently, that Mr Mar- 

 shall is so far correct in saying that bark of the Laurus Cassia 

 of Linnasus possessed none of the qualities attributed to it. So 

 far all is clear, but now the chapter of errors begins. 



Had Linnams been permitted to exercise his own unbiassed 

 judgment in this case, it is not improbable he would have 

 avoided the error of assigning to a plant, which, with all his 

 acuteness, he knew not how to distinguish from the camphor- 

 tree, the credit of producing cassia, or, at all events, would 

 not have done so without some expression of doubt, so as still 

 to leave the question an open one. But, upon consulting other 

 authorities, he found in Burman's Thesaurus Zeylanicus, the 

 figure of a species of Cinnaniomum or Laurus, as he called the 

 genus, to which Burman had given the name of Cinnamomuni 



* " Hanc specicm olirnpro antecedentis varietato habui, nunc vcro, qua 

 nota hanc Ji Camphorifera japoncnu'mm distinguain, non nuvi ; Folia cnini Cin- 

 nainoiiKj tenuiora, nervis ante basin coeiintibus ut in <-anij)lii)rifera ; .subtu« 

 rorc ciOBio illinita, ut Cuinpliora, ct biniul lanceulata ac Icnuiori bubtstantia 

 quani priECcdcntis." — Linn. Flor. ZcdaHka, p. 02. 



