28 REVIEW. [January, 



Linnaeus is said to have borrowed from Rumphius, was not in vogue then ; 

 hence the plants of the ' Flora Zeylanica ' have no specific names attached, 

 but such were given in the first edition of Linuseus's ' Species Plantarum.' 



" ' Linnseus authenticates the herbarium by showing that the numbers 

 of the plants answer to Hermann's ' Musseum Zeylanicum.' On the death 

 of Count Molcke, who became the possessor of this herbarium after Gun- 

 ther, it was purchased by Sir Joseph Banks (for seventy -five guineas), 

 and still forms part of his immense collection ; the specimens are mise- 

 rably damaged and mutilated, but many of them retain the Singhalese 

 names annexed in Hermann's handwi'iting, and also generic names and 

 synonyms in Linnseus's. This herbarium, along with Sir Joseph Banks's 

 other collections, is now in the British Museum.' 



" It was consulted by Wight and Amott for the elucidation of their 

 Leguminosae and Balsaminese only. 



" Mr. WiUiam Ferguson devoted a considerable portion of the summer 

 of 1857 to a careful examination of the whole, making full notes on all 

 the species, most of which, even the barbarous and obscure, he was able 

 to recognize. 



" Mr. Ferguson assures us that even now, after a lapse of nearly 200 

 years, most of the specimens are not only fit for botanical purposes, but 

 that some of them retain the colour of their flowers and fruits ; among 

 other instances, the beautiful Pea-plant, so common in fences about Co- 

 lombo, the Katarodu of the Singhalese {Clitoria ternata), and the Groda- 

 maranda {Sijzjjgiuni Zeylanicuni), so common in the Cinnamon Gardens, 

 the former of which retains the hhie colour of its flowers, and the latter the 

 white colour of its fruits. 



" The ' Flora Zeylanica ' was the last work specially devoted to the 

 botany of Ceylon in the eighteenth centmy. 



" Thunberg travelled here in 1795, and from pp. 170 to 193 of the 

 fourth volume of his ' Travels ' we have the results of his researches in Cey- 

 lon. He paid some attention to our botany, but figured and described, in 

 the Linnaean Society's Transactions, a species of Dillenia {D. Integra) 

 which really does not exist, and which therefore has puzzled aU subsequent 

 botanists. His plant was doubtless some form badly drawn of the Goda- 

 Para of the Singhalese. 



" We now come to the English period, but as on a fonner occasion we 

 noticed at some length the labours of Moon, who was the only English- 

 man up to Mr. Thwaites's time who left a record of his labours behind 

 hira, we shall have very little to record. 



" Mr. Kerr, who was sent here from China in 1815, at the recommenda- 

 tion of Sir Joseph Banks, was the first resident superintendent of our 

 Botanical Gardens, but he died the following year, and left but little record 

 of his labours. Moon, the author of the ' Catalogue of Ceylon Plants,' 



