950 



one of the places where the plant grows, he found that the inhabi- 

 tants had already collected their little hoard of Cedron, and could 

 only be induced to show to him a few seeds, unless he would pur- 

 chase some, which he was not inclined to do, as all those shown to 

 him had lost their germinating power; the people told him, moreover, 

 that it would be useless to search for more fruit, all the trees having 

 been already pillaged. Not deterred by such discouraging prospects, 

 Mr. Purdie commenced searching the forest in all directions ; and 

 after an exertion of three days he succeeded in obtaining about 

 thirty ripe fruits, and perfect leaves and flowers of the tree. Some 

 of the seeds wei'e sown in a Wardian case, and, together with the 

 specimens for the herbarium, transmitted to the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 dens at Kew, where the former soon became young plants, and 

 whence they were distributed amongst various botanical and horticul- 

 tural establishments ; while the latter were briefly described by Dr. 

 Planchon, in his dissertation on Simarubaceae (Hooker's ' London 

 Journal of Botany,' vol. vi. p. 566), under the name of Simaba Cedron. 

 Attempts have been made to wrest from Mr. William Purdie the 

 honour of having been the actual discoverer of the Cedron, and to 

 confer it upon Dr. Luigi Rotellini. Historical evidence pronounces 

 against such an arbitrary change. It is true that Dr. Rotellini, in a 

 paper intituled ' Observazioni terapeutiche sopra alcuni Prodotti Ve- 

 getali della Nuova Granada,' printed in the ' Annali Medico-Chirur- 

 gici del Dottor Telemaco Metaxo' (anno vii. vol. xii. p. 281), drew 

 the attention of the scientific world to the Cedron ; but the learned 

 Doctor himself never saw the tree, referred the plant to Apocynese, 

 and mixed up his account with various fables and inaccuracies, derived 

 from oral communications of the aborigines ; while Mr. Purdie not 

 only inspected the tree in its native locality, and gave an intelligible 

 account of its virtues and properties, but collected such specimens 

 as enabled competent botanists to determine the systematical station 

 of the plant. 



It had been supposed that the Cedron was to be found only on the 

 banks of the Magdalena ; but, about the year 1845, a Panamian gen- 

 tleman ascertained it to grow in Darien ; and, in 1847, 48, and 49, I 

 myself found it in various parts of Darien, Veraguas, and Panama. 

 The specimens transmitted by me, together with those previously sent 

 by Mr. Purdie, enabled Sir Wm. J. Hooker to publish, in December, 

 1850, a full description of the plant, and accompany it by an excellent 

 figure, from the skilful pencil of Mr. William Fitch. To complete the 

 history of the Cedron, it is necessary to add that on the 7th of April, 



