VOL. XLV.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 585 



of which is soft, succulent, and very thick ; which in proportion as it increases, 

 becomes thin, membranous, dry, and brittle : in becoming thus capacious and 

 thin, it gives room to a large number of pyramidal seeds, very close to each 

 other, and fastened all by their points to a common centre, a kind of placenta. 

 When this capsule is in its perfection, its outside is shining, and not unlike the 

 seed of coriander in colour. The pericarpium is as it were divided into 4 loculi, 

 by membranes so delicate, that , they must be regarded with great attention, to 

 be satisfied of their reality. The exterior form of this fruit sufficiently shows 

 this division, by its roundness being interrupted by 4 slight ribs, like those of a 

 melon, which shows as many cells. The membranes, which divide these cells, 

 arise from the placenta, and are inserted into the sides of the capsule. 



The seeds, which fill all the capsule, amount to about 4 or 5 dozen, accord- 

 ing as they are more or less nourished ; for the larger ones receiving more nou- 

 rishment, make the smaller ones abortive. They are always so pressed in their 

 apartments, that their pyramidal figure is owing only to this pressure, which 

 arises from their reciprocal increase. The pyramidal points of these seeds are 

 crooked in some, and bent in others, according to the direction given them in 

 their growing. Their colour is red or brown, and always somewhat shining. 



Remarks. — We find in the ancient writers of plants, such as Theophrastus, 

 Dioscorides, and Pliny, who have all in their manner treated of vegetables, of 

 how much esteem the Cyprus was among the ancients. The historian Josephus, 

 and St. Jerome, have mentioned it as a rare and precious plant, placing it in the 

 same rank with the most valued spices. The fine smell, which its flowers send 

 forth in the countries where they grow naturally, as in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, 

 Persia, &c. has occasioned its use in the earliest time ; and the same use still 

 continues in those countries. Its being twice mentioned in Solomon's Song,* is 

 a very great proof of its being much valued in the most ancient time. We there 

 see it was accustomed to be cultivated even in their vineyards. The perfumers 

 in old times made of it an oil or precious ointment, for various uses ; but prin- 

 cipally to give their anointings a grateful odour, and to make supple the limbs 

 of the body. 



Modern authors have taken great trouble to be thoroughly satisfied of the his- 

 tory of this plant. There have been great controversies among them concern- 

 ing it, in endeavouring to settle its description ; but it must be confessed they 

 have made a very small progress in explaining its true characters. How many 

 mistakes have the botanists of the last 2 centuries made, owing to the bad de- 

 scriptions of this plant which the ancients have left us. 



• Solomon's Song, chap. i. v. 14, ch. iv. v. 13. In both these places the English translation of 

 the Bible has it camphor, instead of Cyprus. — Orig. 

 VOL. IX. 4 F 



