: 
1 
3 
i 
E 
; puli Acoste, arbor Indica gummi guttam 
fundens, fructu dulci, rotundo, cerasi mag- 
; i nitudine,” of Burmann's Thesaurus Zeyla- 
nicus, which, I think, is certainly Mangos- 
tana Morella of Gertner, Garcinia Mo- 
rella of Desrousseaux and De Candolle, 
and, as certainly, Stalagmitis cambogior- 
des of Moon’s Catalogue of Ceylon Plants, 
and of Mrs. Walker; but by no means the 
“ Carcapuli" of Acosta in his Traclado de 
las Drogas, p. 356; which seems to be 
Carcapuli Acoste of Pluk. Alm. 81, Gar- 
cinia Cambogia of Desrousseaux. 
It would probably be thought tedious 
and useless to follow the contradictions of 
authors regarding the identity of these 
us plants, and that which yields Gamboge, 
from 1748, when the Flora Zeylanica was 
published, to the present day. I shall 
_ therefore pass them all over, until I come 
fo the latest. In the excellent ** Prodro- 
E: mus Flore Peninsule Indie Orientalis," 
-~ published by my friends, Dr. Wight and 
Mr. Arnott, in 1834, it is stated that Sta- 
lagmitis cambogioides (of Murray) is a 
Species of Garcinia, and perhaps identical 
with Garcinia Cochinchinensis of Choisy, 
Oxycarpus Cochinchinensis of Loureiro. 
_ The whole of the account given by Mur- 
Tay of his Stalagmitis appeared to me, at 
the time I communicated my observations 
1o the Royal Society, so enigmatical that I 
felt unable to form an opinion as to what it 
15; but I expressed my fears that the state- 
ment of Wight and Arnott only threw out 
another temptation to blunder; for Murray 
‘Says, that in his plant, the flowers are ar- 
ranged on a common footstalk, generally 
More than an inch long, in the axils of the 
EN jointed and bearing the pedicels, 
ie are twice the length of the flowers 
x mselves, in verticels at the joints, and 
at the fruit is globular, white, slightly 
reddened on one side, and sometimes twice 
REMARES ON THE GAMBOGE TREE OF CEYLON. 
197 
plant as having a three-celled ovary, a fruit 
as large as a small apple, while the genus 
is partly characterized by the flowers hav- 
ing five petals, and by the presence of five 
large truncated glands, alternating with the 
fasciculi of stamens. On the other hand, 
Mrs. Walker's drawings, and specimens of 
the fruit sent by Mr. Blair to Dr. Duncan, 
show that this, like the fruit of Garcinia 
Morella, is four-celled, and not larger than 
a cherry; and in the specimens which Mrs. 
Walker has sent to me, I never find more 
than four petals, and cannot see a trace of 
these glands. I only mention these cir- 
cumstances now, to show the inextricable 
confusion in which the subject lay, and in 
which it would have remained, had it not 
been for Mrs. Walker and the kindness with 
which Mr. Brown attended to my request 
that he would examine the specimens of 
Konig in the Banksian Herbarium. This 
examination has reconciled most of the con- 
tradictions of authors in a way which could 
hardly have been anticipated ; the authori- 
tative specimen of König is a compound, 
and consists of the flowers of Xanthochy- 
mus ovalifolius, with whatseems the branch, 
leaves, and fruit of the plant which in 
Ceylon yields Gamboge. I give authority 
to this statement by quoting the letter of 
Mr. Brown. ‘“‘ The plant sent pasted by 
König to Sir Joseph Banks, as one speci- 
men, I have ascertained to be made up of 
two plants, and very probably of two ge- 
nera. The union was concealed by sealing 
wax. The portion in flower, and which 
agrees in structure with Murray’s account, 
is, I have no doubt, the Xanthochymus _. 
ovalifolius of Roxburgh. Stalagmitis and 
Xanthochymus are therefore one genus, 
as Cambessédes has already observed, giv- 
ing the preference to the earlier name of 
Murray. This, however, forms but a small 
part of the whole specimen, the larger por- 
tion being, I am inclined to think, the same 
with your plant, of which I have seen, and 
I believe still possess, the specimen you 
sent to Don The structure, however, of 
this greater portion cannot be ascertai 
from the few very young flower-buds be- 
longing to it. It approaches also very 
1 One of those received from Mrs. Walker. 
