194 
Natural Family of Guttifere, and they ge- 
nerally differ only in believing, either with 
Murray, that this plant is Stalagmitis 
cambogioides; or, with De Candolle, that 
it is Garcinia Cambogia (See Essai sur 
les Proprietés Médicales des Plantes, p- 
105). Murray’s opinions were founded 
upon certain MSS. by König, and the ex- 
amination of a specimen collected by him, 
both of which were in the possession of 
Sir Joseph Banks, by whose liberality he 
was allowed to publish his observations, 
which appeared in 1789, in the ninth 
volume of the Commentationes Societatis 
Regie Scientiarum Göttingensis. 
The Authors of the British and several 
of the Continental Pharmacopeias, have 
adopted Murray's opinions; but in a paper, 
read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
March, 1836, I stated my belief that this ac- 
quiescence had been somewhat too hasty ; 
and my belief was founded on the exami- 
nation of flowering specimens and draw- 
ings, with observations made in Ceylon, 
most obligingly communicated to me by 
Mrs. Col. Walker, and on the examination 
of a specimen in fruit transmitted by Mr. 
Blair to the late Dr. Duncan, now in the 
Materia Medica Museum of this University. 
All the Gamboge of Commerce is ex- 
ported, as it appears, from Singapoor, and 
believed to be obtained from Siam. 
observations of Kénig were made in Ceylon, 
and during a short stay in Siam,—but 
chiefly at the former place, where his spe- 
cimens must have been gathered; for 
Murray informs us that all his information 
in Siam was derived from a Roman Catholic 
Priest, who gave him a very imperfect de- 
scription of the tree, and that König him- 
self had never seen it alive, and had not 
i 
of Künig 
made in Ceylon, and portions of a speci- 
men in the Banksian Herbarium, trans- 
mitted from thence by Kénig,—does Murray 
construct the character of his genus Sta- 
lagmitis, and define his species cambogi- 
REMARKS ON THE GAMBOGE TREE OF CEYLON. 
oides. Murray's description is, in s 
respects, wholly at variance with the o 
tree which, in Ceylon, yields a matter h 
ing all the properties, and answering 
the purposes of Gamboge ; yet in Ceylon, 
authority than that of Murray for this 
lief; Konig himself gives his plant 
profiting with equal zeal, judgment, RA 
success, by the ample opportunities which x 
they enjoy of cultivating an acquaintance. : 
with the Botany of that rich and interesting 
island, Ceylon. It will give value and au- — 
thority to these observations, if I Mm 
some extracts from Mrs. Walker's letters, T 
in which the tree, in conformity with pr £2 
viously received opinion, is called E E 
mitis cambogioides,—and I shall aktet: — 
wards state what the tree really 1s. £^ 
In her first letter, dated Colombo, 1st 
July, 1833, Mrs. Walker says, “ I be 
set about the Stalagmitis ¢ 
which is at present in fruit, 
drawn a branch, with a section 0 
I have likewise procured some 
from the tree ; it is brilliant and 
It is obtained from two other tre 
the Garcinia Cambogia and an 
f the fruit. — 
excellent — 
es here, — 
mony of Mr. Bro - 
which I shall presently quote again; he 
lagmitis of Murray, as you well know, F 
ed from König’s MSS., and buen du 
or rather of one of his specimens, iii 
mens, as well as the descriptions, belong i 
of Ceylon." 
