VOL. LI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SOQ 



The other plant is known by the name of the Cape Jasmine,* and is the 

 most rare and beautiful shrub, that has yet been introduced into the European 

 gardens, as well for the refreshing aromatic smell of its milk-white flowers, as 

 the perpetual verdure of its leaves, which are like those of the lemon-tree. It 

 promises, from the thickness and woodiness of its stem, together with its free 

 manner of growing, to become a shrub of 6 or 7 feet high. It bears but one 

 flower at the end of a branch ; and the leaves grow opposite to each other on 

 the branches. We are indebted to Capt. Hutchinson, of the Godolphin India- 

 man, for this curious discovery, who, about 6 years ago, found it growing near 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and, on his arrival here, presented it to Richard 

 Warner, Esq, of Woodford, Essex ; who finding great difficulty in propagating 

 this valuable plant, either from cuttings, or by inarching it on the yellow Indian 

 jasmine, as he had been advised, Mr. E. recommended him to try Mr. James 

 Gordon, gardener at Mile-end; and, at the same time (August 1757,) by the 

 interest of Gustavus Brander, Esq. f.r. s., he procured two cuttings of it for 

 Mr. Gordon. These, with two more, which he afterw^ards received, he in- 

 creased to so considerable a number, that, in order to dispose of them, he ad- 

 vertised for sale at 5 guineas a plant ; and has had such success in the sale, that, 

 reckoning the value of the plants on hands (with a proper allowance for the fall- 

 ing of the price, as they become more plenty,) he computes this plant will be 

 worth at least ,^500 sterling to him. 



Having dissected many dried as well as fresh specimens of this rare plant, Mr. 

 E. found sufficient evidence (notwithstanding the flowers being double) to 

 prove, that it belonged to quite another class of plants, as different from the 

 jasmine as the rose is from the peony : that the fruit was below the receptacle, 

 instead of being above it. Linneus says this plant belongs to the natural order 

 of contorted flowers, that is, to those monopetalous flowers whose lobes, or 

 sections of the limb of their petals, turn all to the right hand ; such as the Ne- 

 rium, Plumeria, Cerbera, Cameraria, Vinca, &c. and that it should be placed 

 next to the Cerbera. 



Mr. George Dionysius Ehret, f. r. s., published a most elegant plate of this 

 plant, by the name of, Jasminum ? ramo uniflore pleno, petalis coriaceis, with 

 a note of interrogation, as a quaere, before the word jasminum ; leaving the 

 determination, whether it is a jasmine or not, to a future inquiry. 



Fig. A, pi. 15, represents the gardenia with a single flower, drawn from a 

 dried specimen in the British Museum, b, the same in fruit, c, a capsula 

 with five divisions in the calyx, d, the same cut across to show the seeds lying 

 in the two loculaments. e, the seeds. 



* The Cape Jasmine, as it is commonly called, is the gardenia Jiorida of Linneus, t ; 



