VOL. LII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. t^ft' 



system. At first it was thought to be a species of jasmine,* probably from some 

 distant likeness and the fragrancy of its flowers; but as it hardly agreed in any 

 other particular, it was afterwards doubted if it could properly be referred to that 

 tribe,-}- and at last John Ellis, Esq., f.r.s. declared this plant to be a distinct 

 genus, and gave it the name of gardenia. J This gentleman concluded that the 

 plant then in question, must be very different from a jasmine, as well from the 

 unlikeness in its leaves and stipulas, as principally from the seed-vessel being 

 placed below the receptacle of the flower ; but not choosing to advance this on 

 his own authority, he sent an account of it with dried specimens to Dr. Linnaeus 

 at Upsal, whose known extensive skill in every part of natural history, has ren- 

 dered his opinion among all the professors of that science to be of the best au- 

 thority. The Dr. answered that the situation of the seed-vessel, and the peculi- 

 arity of the calyx, were sufficient to persuade him of its being a new genus ; 

 but as the stamina must be uncertain in double flowers, he could not then un- 

 dertake to determine its characters. However soon afterwards Dr. Linnaeus 

 wrote word that he had found a single flower of this same plant, among some 

 specimens from the East Indies, and no longer scrupled to agree to Mr. Ellis's 

 determination of the gardenia. There wanted nothing then but an account of 

 the fruit ; and especially the number of seeds ; and Mr. Ellis, who was well 

 acquainted with observations on the most minute parts of nature, soon discovered 

 that the seed-vessel contained rudiments of many seeds ; though it seems the 

 veracity of this particular has been much questioned ; which doubtless has arisen 

 from the imperfect state that all fruits and seeds commonly appear in, after double 

 flowers, as in the present case. But by good fortune, at Mr. Carteret Webb's at 

 Bushbridge, Dr. S. discovered a specimen of this shrub in perfect fruit, gathered by 

 Mr. Cunningham, in the East Indies, where that gentleman travelled for discovery 

 of natural curiosities. On dissecting the fruit for examination, he found that the 

 generical characters of the gardenia given by Mr. Ellis in the Phil. Trans., vol 5 J, 

 p. 92,9, were very complete. Dr. S. adds a few particulars, that could not be seen 

 in an imperfect or immature fruit. 



The seed-vessel when ripe, is egg-shaped, outwardly ribbed from the descend- 

 ing wings of the flower-cup, and within divided into two cells by a thin mem- 

 branaceous partition. The seeds are many, at least more than 50 in each cell, 

 compressed and surrounded with a mucilaginous substance. The mucilage here 

 mentioned was so little hardened in the fruit he examined, that the seeds them- 

 selves were quite soft and inclined to be moist. Recollecting that Dr. Plukenet 

 had figured many of Mr. Cunningham's plants, Dr. S. had recourse to his Gazo- 



* Miller Diet, and fig. + Ehretfig. % Phil, Trans. 1760. p. 929. 



