VOL. XXXVIII.] k'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 631 



A Catalogue of the Fifty Plants, from Chelsea Garden, presented to the Royal 

 Society by the Company of Apothecaries, for the Year 1 732 ; pursuant to the 

 Direction of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. Med. Reg. Pro's. Col. Reg. Med. et Soc. 

 Reg. By Isaac Rand, Apothecary, F. R. S. N°43],p. 199. 



This is the 1 1th present of this sort, completing 550 plants. 



On Camphor extracted from Thyme. By Caspar Neumcin, M. D. Professor of 

 Chemistry at Berlin, mid F.R.S. An Abstract from the Latin. N°431, 

 p. 202. 



This paper contains a reply to Mr. Brown's objections* to the propriety of 

 calling the product obtained by Mr. N. in the distillation of thyme, the cam- 

 phor of thyme. Mr. Brown rather considers it to be a coagulated or condensed 

 oil, differing from the true oriental camphor in several of its chemical proper- 

 ties. Dr. Neuman in his reply observes, that as it coincides in its leading pro- 

 perties with camphor, and has a nearer affinity to that than to any other known 

 substance, he thought himself justified in calling it a species of camphor. He 

 further remarks that this product is not of a greasy or butyraceous quality, but 

 that it appears under a dry crystallized form, and caimot therefore with any de- 

 gree of propriety be termed an oil. The oils of aniseed, of olives, &:c. howsoever 

 congealed by the winter cold, are nevertheless found to have the feel and con- 

 sistence of butter or fat when rubbed between the fingers, and never become 

 dry and hard like vitriolated tartar or sugar-candy. Dr. N. employs the word 

 camphor as a generic term ; a.nd conceives it to be no objection to considering 

 this product of thyme as a species of camphor, because with some chemical 

 agents the results obtained from it and he oriental camphor are somewhat dif- 

 ferent. Gold and silver (he observes) are both metals, although they are not 

 both acted upon in the same manner by the same acid menstruums. 



The Settling of a new Genus of Plants, called cfter the Malayans, Mangostans. 

 By Laurentius Garcin, M.D. and F. R. S. Translated from the French by 

 Mr. Zollman, F. R. S. N" 43 1 , p. 232. 



The mangostans is a kind of pomiferous tree,-f- growing in the Molucca 

 Islands, the fruit of which is one of the best in the world for eating. 



* Vol. vii. 103 of these Abridgments. Mr. Neuman's former observations on this subject are in- 

 serted in Vol. vii. p. 94 of these Abridgments. 



f The tree here described is the garcinia wmigosfaiia of Linnaeus, the genus being so named in 

 honour of Dr. Garcin, who travelled into the East Indies, 



