Retrospective Criticism. 523 



Moors in Andalusia, the roofs of which are of the Pinus Pinea, or stone pine, 

 once extensively grown in Andalusia, the author came to the conclusion that 

 the origin of the timber of the mosque must be sought elsewhere, and that it 

 was not of any Spanish, or even European, tree. 



" By a singular coincidence, the subject had been undergoing investigation 

 about the same time in Africa itself. Mr. Drummond Hay, the British 

 Consul at Tangiers, had, by tracing the Arabic etymology of the word alerce, 

 by availing himself, we believe, of the extensive botanical researches of the 

 late M. Schawboe, the Danish consul in Morocco, and by collating the 

 accounts of the resident Moors, made out that the alerce, was the Tliiija 

 articulata, a tree which grows on the Atlas in the vicinity Tangiers. In 

 'corroboration of his views, a plant of the timber in question was transmitted to 

 London. This plant, which is still at the rooms of the Horticultural Society 

 in Regent Street, is 20 in. in diameter ; and we are authorised by Captain Cook 

 to say, that it not only agrees with the parts of the timber of the mosque at 

 Cordova, which he examined, but that he is perfectly satisfied of the 

 identitv. It is highly balsamic and odoriferous ; the resin, no doubt, pre- 

 venting the ravages of insects, as well as the influence of the air. There 

 is reason to believe that it was the sandarac of the Orientals, and that this 

 species was employed, where it could be procured, in the construction of their 

 religious edifices. 



" Our chief reason for giving a notice of this interesting and remarkable 

 tree is the hope that, by the assistance of our friends or correspondents, 

 we may be enabled, by seeds or by plants, to see its addition to the British 

 arboretum. We know no reason to apprehend that the species, which 

 belongs to the Conlferae, and is nearly allied to the Italian cypress, and the 

 juniper of the south of Europe, should not be as hardy as its congeners, 

 which are natives of similar latitudes, and which grow as well in the 

 warmer parts of England as in the south of Europe. We are ardently 

 desirous of its introduction, not only from its historical interest, but from its 

 value in an economical point of view." 



Jasmmum odoratissimum Arb. Brit., p. 1252. — The gelsomino di Goa, 

 called in your Arboretuvi Britannicum by the scientific name of t/asminum 

 odoratissimum, is the J. Samhac var. trifoliatum of your Encyclo'pcedia of 

 Plants, The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosmo III., in 1689, sent for ten or 

 twelve boxes of this plant from Goa; and amongst them were found the two 

 varieties of mugherino, one of which has a semi-double flower, and the other 

 a double flower. The mugherino with a simple flower, called the gelsomina 

 del Gime, and, by the Genoese, gemetta, was the first known. Botli the first 

 and the second varieties are described by Tilliinthe Orto Pisano ; the first (in 

 p. 87. t, 31.), " Jasminium sive Sambac Arabum, folio accuminato, flore 

 stellato, majore, albo, odoratissimo, vulgo mugherino;" the second (p. 87. 

 t. 30.), "Jasminium Indicum Mali aurantiae foliis, flore albo pleno, amphs- 

 simo." The second variety is called, by Zuccagni, Mogorium goaense, and 

 vulgarly mugherino di Goa, mugherino di Castello, mugherino doppio. The 

 latter is the variety of Sambac, which Cosmo III. wished to retain solely in 

 the garden of the royal villa Castello ; and, in fact, this plant of royal privacy 

 was kept in custody with great care for more than a century ; but the great 

 Duke Leopold, superior to the prejudices of his predecessor, not only ordered 

 that it should be propagated in all the royal villas, but that it should be 

 distributed amongst amateurs in this as well as in other countries ; and, 

 thanks to such provident liberality, the species is preserved in Europe. Had 

 not this been the case, we should have been deprived of a shrub which is the 

 ornament of the green-house, and which, during the time of its flowering, is 

 celebrated for its exquisite fragrance; as, in 1791, from some unfortunate 

 effect of malaria, all the plants of it in Tuscany died, and that which was 

 brought from Haarlem also ; and the former is now known by the name of 

 Nyctanthes pulch^rrima, or the fameux jasmin du Grand Due de Toscane. 

 (Vide Zucc. Cent., i.) 



