380 
fallen into at least as great a blunder. It is 
undoubtedly, I think, the Garcinia ( Man- 
gostana, Gert.) Morella of Desrousseaux 
and Gertner. Arnott now thinks it Gar- 
cinia Zeylanica, which it cannot be, if 
Roxburgh describes this with any degree 
of truth. In fact, the Garcinia Morella, 
which I have said it is, is no Garcinia at 
all. Murray says, the tree is Stalagmites 
Cambogioides ; but his description will not 
apply to my plant, from which I have a 
great quantity of excellent Gamboge. I 
have sent a specimen of it to Mr. Don, 
requesting that he will compare it with 
the specimens in the Banksian Herba- 
rium, from which Murray's description was 
taken. If it prove the same, the generic 
name S/alagmitis may be retained, and the 
description only altered. If not the same, 
it must form the type of a new genus, to 
which I find Garcinia elliptica of Wal- 
lich also belongs; it is especially charac- 
terized by the stamens, of which I send 
you a figure.' 
“ The point on which Dr. Graham finds 
it necessary wholly to dissent from us is 
thus briefly stated at page 102 of the Pro- 
dromus. ' There can now be little doubt 
of this Xanthochymus ovalifolius being 
the only plant in Ceylon yielding Gam- 
boge fit for the arts; and that, conse- 
quently, the specific name of Linneus, 
ambogia Gutta, ought to have been ap- 
plied to this species, and not to Garcinia 
Cambogia. The evidence contained in 
Dr. Grabam's letter seems so completely 
to invalidate the correctness of our state- 
ment, that it might appear useless to at- 
tempt any refutation; yet I am not wholly 
satisfied that he is either wholly right or we 
wholly wrong. I do not deem him right 
in supposing the tree of which he has got 
specimens to be the only one that produces 
Gamboge fit to be used in the arts, nor do 
I believe it is the one that produces the true 
Ceylon Gamboge. I entertain this opinion, 
because it has been long and well known 
that there are two sorts in use; one from 
the eastward, Siam, Cambogia, China; 
and the other from Ceylon ; the latter con- 
sidered inferior to the former. The Gam- 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
boge from the tree in question, specimens 
of which I have seen, is apparently of the 
best quality, and much superior to the 
common Ceylon Gamboge, having a fine 
rather light colour and a glassy fracture. 
The true Ceylon Gamboge is of a darker 
hue, and mixed with dark brown spots. 
The tree which produces the fine Ceylon 
Gamboge is rare, as Col. Walker informs 
me he has only met with it in one place, 
and that in an old garden near a former 
Dutch settlement, not far from Negombo. 
It cannot, surely, be supposed that a tree 
so exceedingly rare as this is represented, 
should be the one that affords all the Gam- 
boge produced in the island; still less so, 
when it is borne in mind that the substance — 
obtained from it differs in quality from what | 
is usually produced there, and known in - 
commerce under the name of “ Ceylon 
Gamboge.” From these facts I think we | 
are entitled to conclude that Dr. Graham 
has drawn a wide inference from insufficient 
data; or, in other words, has attempted to : 
form a general rule from a solitary example. 
I do not, however, wish it to be supposed, 
that I insist upon our statement being 
held as strictly correct ; because a certam . 
degree of uncertainty is attached to the 
tree or trees from which this substance 1$ 
procured, which all the efforts of Botanists, 
for the last century, have been unable 
altogether to remove. All that I have 
attempted, or indeed wish, to prove 18, 
first, that the facts adduced by Dr. Gra- 
am are not sufficient to invalidate our 
that the Xanthochymus ovalifo- j 
lius is the only indigenous plant m Ceylon 
producing Gamboge fit to be used T 
the arts, though I fear, from further ei- 
quiries, that we were premature 1D h p E 
ing so strong a statement ; and, seco : : 
that the tree from which Dr. Graham : 
specimens were procured is of exotic A: 
gin. I shall now attempt to account tor 
the appearance in the island of that tree, : 
which is neither a Garcinia nor a Xa 
thochymus. us 
id About the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, the Dutch first imported Re = 
boge into Europe from China, and, a 
E 
position, 
