TOL. XLV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 58/ 



what withered, without doubt by the fault of the designer, who has drawn it in 

 its natural size; which is greater in Malabar than elsewhere, because of the rains 

 which fall there in abundance half the year. This shrub is less in all its parts in 

 Arabia, and to the south of Persia, because in those countries it rains seldom ; 

 but in recompence, its flowers have much more smell than in Malabar. It must 

 be remarked here on this occasion, that the description just now given, and 

 which contains the size of the parts, was made in a garden in the Persian gulf 

 belonging to the Dutch factory, and situate about a league from the town of 

 Gameroon, otherwise called Bender-Abassi, where there was one of these trees 

 carefully preserved, which was the first he saw in the Indies ; as it was complete 

 in all its parts, having flowers and fruit ; and as it appeared agreeable and curi- 

 ous, especially on account of the fine smell of the flowers, and as it was a new 

 genus to be established in botany, he examined it with great exactness, and 

 noted its characters, figures, and dimensions. He did not conceive it to be the 

 Cyprus, not then knowing what it was. He asked the people of the country the 

 name of this beautiful shrub : they only called it henna, and he could learn no 

 other name : they assured him it had no other name, either in Persia, or in 

 Arabia. It was on the 1st of December, 1721, that he observed it, and de- 

 scribed it under the name of frutex Persicus, foliis ligustri, flore et fructu race- 

 moso, henna vulgo dictus. He thus characterized it, in expectation of finding 

 it, if it had already been described among authors, after his return to Europe. 

 When he returned in 1730, he had the satisfaction to find it in Mr. Ray's his- 

 tory, by the description which he has given of it, extracted from various authors, 

 in the chapter of ligustrum, under the synonyma of Parkinson, and to see it in 

 the other authors above mentioned, especially the figure given by Rauwolf, which 

 is not a bad one, and which is copied by Clusius, Dodonaeus, Parkinson, and 

 Dalechamp. 



The figure in the Hortus Malabaricus under the name of mail-anschi, does 

 not so happily represent our cyprus, as that excellent work generally does the 

 plants it treats of. The leaves of this plant there are half withered, and not in 

 their natural disposition. Rauwolfs figure is much nearer the truth. The 

 flowers are not much better represented than the leaves, in the Hortus Malaba- 

 ricus ; as, besides other things of less moment, the authors of that work have 

 neglected to make the petals appear between the lobes of the calyx, as always 

 happens in a natural state ; by which disposition the flower appears of an octa- 

 gonal figure. Rumphius, who has written a History of the Plants of Molucca, 

 has given a description of this shrub, not diflferent from mine. 



By what is here laid down of the characters of this plant, we plainly see that 

 it differs widely from the oxyacantha and rhamnus ; of one of which the authors 

 of the notes to the Hortus Malabaricus suspected the cyprus to be a species. 



