TABEIIN.EMONTANA. 



21. T. corottaria. Garland Tabernimontana. Ait. 

 ti. 3. Roxburgh MSS. (Nerium coronarium ; Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. 1. 1236. Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 52. N. divarica- 

 tum ; Linn. Sp. PI. 306. Willd. ibid. Jafminiim zeylani- 

 cum, folio oblongo, flore albo pleno odoratiffimo ; Burm. 

 Zeyl. 129.1.59. Nandi-ervatam ; Rhcede Hort. Malab. 

 V. 2. 105. 107. t. 54, 55.) — Leaves elliptical, pointed, 

 fmooth. Stalks forked, corj-mbofe, from the forks of the 

 branches, as long as the leaves. — Native of the Eaft Indies, 

 in a fandy foil, flowering two or three times in a year. It is 

 faid to have been introduced into the Englifh ftoves by the 

 late Mr. Gordon, in 1770. This plant blooms at various 

 feafons, and is ornainental as well as fragrant, though in- 

 ferior in both refpedls to the Gardenia Jlorida, with which 

 fome of its fynonyms have been confounded. Its genus is 

 now more correftly determined in the fecond edition of 

 Hort. Kew. than in the firft ; but a faulty fpecific charac- 

 ter flill remains, taken (as it feems) from Jacquin's plate, 

 which exhibits a weak imperfefl fpecimen. The Jlem is 

 fhrubby, budiy, fmooth, three or four feet high, with 

 copious forked fpreading branches. Leaves two or two 

 and a half inches long, paler beneath, on channelled /oo/^fl//fj 

 half an inch in length. The corymbs, in various wUd or cul- 

 tivated, fingle or double-flowered, fpecimens before us, con- 

 fift of from three to fix cream-coloured _/?owfrj-, and are 

 elevated on a ftalk, an inch and a half long, always fohtary, 

 from the forks of the branches. The fingle corolla has a 

 rather flender tube, an inch long, with broad fegments to 

 the limb, about the fame length ; but in a double ftate both 

 parts are much enfarged and thickened. 



Mr. Brown has determined the Nirium divar'tcatiim of 

 Linnseus, erroneoufly marked as biennial, to be the fame 

 plant with the above. We fliall now proceed to enumerate 

 three new fpecies from his Prodromiis. 



22. T. orientalis. Smooth Indian Taberna:montana. 

 Brown n. I. — " Leaves lanceolate-oblong, pointed, very 

 fmooth, as well as the branches. Cymes repeatedly compound, 

 fmooth. Brafteas awl-fliaped, not foon deciduous." — Ga- 

 thered in the tropical part of New Holland, by Mr. Brown, 

 who fufpefts the Curutu-Pala, Hort. Malab. 83. t. 46, 

 cited by Linnxus for his T. altertiifolia, fee our 25th fpecies, 

 may belong to the prefent plant, the haves being erroneoufly 

 reprefented as alternate. 



23. T. pubefcens. Downy New Holland Tabemsemon- 

 tana. Br. n. 2. — " Leaves elhptic-oblong, fomewhat 

 pointed, downy beneath like the young branches. Branches 

 of the cymes ereft, hairy as well as the calyx. Brafteas 

 very minute, deciduous." — Native of the tropical part of 

 New Holland. M^. R. Brown. 



24. T. ebraSeata. Naked-flowered Tabernjemontana. 

 Br. n. 3. — " Leaves fomewhat elliptical, downy as well as 

 the cymes. Branches and flower-ftalks fpreading. Brac- 

 teas none." — Found by Mr. Brown in the fame country as 

 the two lail. We have feen no fpecimens of any of thefe 

 three fpecies. 



25. T. alternifolia. Alternate-leaved Tabernsemontana. 

 Linn. Sp. PI. 308. Willd. n. 10. Poiret in Lam. n. 20. 

 (Curutu-Pala } Rheede Hort. Malab. v. i. 83. t. 46.) — 



Leaves fcattered, ovato-lanceolate Native of fandy ground 



on the coafl of Malabar, flowering all the year, but efpe- 

 cially in the rainy feafon. A fmall tree, from fix to twelve 

 feet high, a foot in diameter. The leaves are three or four 

 inches long, pointed, on fliort thick footjlalks, more or lefs 

 alternate, or difperfed, according to the figure, which is 

 our only authority for that charafter. Panicles lateral or 

 terminal, corymbofe, drooping, of about nine white fra- 



grant Jlotxiers, whofe tube is near two inches long, the limb 

 dilated and notched, very much twifted. Follicles tawny, 

 ovate, an inch long, with a recurved point. LinnEus de- 

 pended folely on the Hortus Malabaricus for this fpecies, ef 

 which he had no fpecimen. The circumftance of the alter- 

 nate leaves, unexampled in any known Taberntmontana, 

 has excited a reafonable fufpicion of error. See our 2 2d 

 fpecies. 



26. T. bufalina. Buffalo-horned Tabernaemontana. 

 Loureir. Cochinch. 117. (Capficum fylveftre ; Rumph. 

 Amboin. v. 4. 133. t. 67.) — Leaves lanceolate, fmooth. 

 Stalks lateral, in pairs, fingle-flowered, pendulous — Na- 

 tive of moid (hady vaUies in Amboina, and of bufliy places 

 in Cochinchina, where it is called Cay Jung tldu. A Jhrub 

 five feet high, branched, nearly ereft. Leaves oppofite, 

 from five to eight inches in length, ovato-lanceolate, fliining, 

 entire. Flotuers white, on long fimple ftalks. Tube long 

 and flender, inflated at the bafe. FollicL-s rather long, 

 pointed, fwelling, fmooth, with an unequal furface. Seeds 

 oblong, angular, imbedded in red pulp. The fruit in 

 Rumphius's plate is more Hke the following. Lourelro. 



27. T. bovina. Bull-horned TabernxmontaJia. Loureir. 

 Cochinch. llB. (Cay fun ^ bo of the Cochinchinefe.) — 

 Leaves lanceolate, fmooth. Stalks axillary, foUtary, nearly 

 ereft, about five-flowered Native of the plains of Cochin- 

 china. A Jhrub four feet high, with drooping branches. 

 Leaves oppofite, entire. Flowers white. Follicles fhort, 

 recurved, tumid, pointed, even in the furface. Seeds 

 roundifh, angiJar, lodged in red piJp. 



Loureiro, from whofe work and that of Rumphius all 

 our knowledge of the two laft fpecies is derived, attributes 

 to them an emolhent and relaxing quality. Their vifcid 

 milky juice is faid gently to draw out thorns from the 

 flefli. 



The herbaceous plants, fuppofed by Linnaeus to belong- 

 to this genus, conftitute, as we have already faid, and as 

 Linnaeus himfelf originally thought, a very diftinft one, of 

 which we fliall now treat by the name of Amfonia. We can 

 give no poCtive accoimt of the meaning or origin of thLs 

 name, except that its author, according to Miller, was 

 Clayton. Linnasus, in his own copy of Gronovius's Flora 

 Virginica, cd. I. p. 26, has vmtten Amfonia, as a generic 

 name, to what Clayton took for a fpecies of Nerium, and 

 has fubjoined alfo in manufcript the charafters of the fol- 

 licles and feeds. This plant, in the fecond edition of Sp. PI. 

 is the Tabernimontana Amfonia ; and fo it remained, till Mr. 

 Walter reftored it to rank as a genus ; but without throwing 

 any hght upon the name. A fimilar obfcurity envelopes the 

 nearly fimilar nameof Amasonia, (fee that article, ) which is 

 reported in the vSupplementum of Linnxus to be dedicated 

 to the honour of Amafon, a traveller in America, whom 

 M. De Theis has baptized Thomas. But we have never 

 been able to learn any tidings of fuch a perfon. Whether 

 Amfonia, being an error in orthography for Anfonia, may 

 have been defigned to commemorate the great lord Anfon, 

 who brought home a new efculent pea, and deferved bota- 

 nical commemoration as much as any other eminent naviga- 

 tor not a profefled botanift ; and whether Amafonia be a (till 

 further corruption of the fame name, we muft leave in doubt. 

 We have only to obferve, that if both thefe naiues (honld 

 prove to have the fame origin, or be thought, as they cer- 

 tainly are, too nearly alike, the former, Amfonia, ought to 

 be retained in preference to the latter, which is of much 

 later date. 



Amsonia. Walter Carolin. 98. Michairx Boreal- 

 Amer. v. i. 121. Purfh 184. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 2. 72. 



— Clafs 



