: 
ME maritimus, Lam.; Typha angusti- 
folia, L.! Potamogeton natans, L.! Che- 
.. mopodium glaucum, L.; C. maritimum, 
— "La Rumez crispus, L.; Plantago major, 
— L; Calystegia sepium, Br.; C. Soldanella, 
onchus oleraceus, L. ; Gnaphalium 
luteo-album, L.; Arenari amarina, L.; 
Stellaria media, Sm.; and Nasturtium 
sylvestre, Br. 
It simply now remains for the Editor to 
state that this little synopsis of the plants 
of New Zealand, which has been prepared 
as well from the works of authors as from 
materials in his own possession, has re- 
ceived his utmost attention, and his en- 
deavours to render the enumeration as 
complete, and its various details as 
copious as possible; at the same time, 
he cannot, in due candour, but express his 
apprehension that errors may be found in 
it, which the botanic reader will be pleased 
to regard with indulgence, when he per- 
ceives the general design has been to afford 
a better view of what is now known of the 
Flora of those islands, than has already 
been given to the public, as well as to fur- 
nish amass of information, not, it is hoped, 
devoid of interest, regarding the uses to 
_ Which the native inhabitants apply certain 
of their plants, their own name of each 
kind, so far as it has been accurately as- 
certained, being also given in the synony- 
my of the species. Where certain plants, 
long since published, have been described 
vaguely or insufficiently by botanic writers 
= others, very nearly allied, of recent 
gala appear with them in the follow- 
"u^ new diagnoses are given, in 
is E respective specific differences 
s E and clearly defined ; and where 
ln tor has had, in his own New Hol- 
Herbarium, species as yet unpublish- 
that belong to genera of which other 
species are of frequent occurrence in those 
Ma characters of the Australian, 
d "y undescribed plants, are occasi- 
th Y given at the foot of the page; and 
" by these additions of new, although 
à matter, he humbl Siehe 
little Wa or umbly trusts this his 
ia regarded with more in- 
ON THE SOURCES AND COMPOSITION OF GAMBOGE. 
233 
Finally, care has been taken to note the 
particular localities at which every plant has 
been found, as also to give chronologically 
the dates at which it has been gathered by 
Botanists, in order that the discoverer may 
be duly accredited for his researches, whilst 
first in the field. 
(To be continued.) 
—— 
ON THE SOURCES AND COMPO- 
SITION OF GAMBOGE, WITH AN 
EXAMINATION OF SOME ANA- 
LOGOUS CONCRETE JUICES. 
By RosznT Curistison, M. D., Professor of Mate- 
ria Medica, in the University of Edinburgh, &c. 
[Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, March 
Tth, 1836.] 
GAMBOGE, one of our most important 
pigments, as well as a very valuable drug, 
appears to have ‘been first made known in 
Europe little more than two centuries ago. 
It was first publicly noticed by Clusius, or 
De l'Ecluse, at one time keeper of the 
Botanic Garden at Vienna, and afterwards 
Professor at Leyden. He succinctly men- 
tions it among various resins and concrete 
juices brought to him from China by a 
Dutch Admiral, Van Neck, in 1603; de- 
scribes it under its oriental name of Ghit- 
taiemoŭ, as a concrete juice of great purity, 
of a tawny colour, and tinging the saliva 
ellow; and adds, that it was used in the East 
for evacuating dropsical swellings, which 
it accomplishes without occasioning any 
inconvenience. Although it probably soon 
became a familiar substance in the art of 
painting, it was long comparatively ne- 
glected in the practice of medicine. For 
it did not obtain a place in the European 
Pharmacopzias till after the commence- 
ment of the subsequent century; and it 
was so much distrusted, on account of its 
poisonous properties in large doses, that 
even in the middle of that century, as we 
learn from Murray of Gottingen, it was 
chiefly used by those who were not afraid 
of being thought experimentalists in phy- 
sic? Now-a-days, however, its properties 
1 Caroli Clusii Exoticorum, Lib. iv. cap. viii. page 
82. Antwerp. 1605. 
2 Commentationes Gottingenses, ix. 171. 1788. 
