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On the Tree which produces 



[Oct. 



II. — On the Tree which produces the Gamboge of Commerce. — By 

 R. WiGifT, Esq. M. D. 



I am induced to request a place in the Madras Journal for the inser- 

 tion of a few remarks on the tree which produces the gamboge of com- 

 merce, in consequence of the following observations on it, by Dr. Gra- 

 ham, Professor of Botany in Edinburgh, communicated by him in a 

 letter dated 12th March, 1836 : — " In consequence of having received 

 specimens from Mrs. Walker of the tree which in Ceylon yields gam- 

 boge, I have been attending to the subject lately, and on Monday last, 

 read some observations to the Royal Society (of Edinburgh) about it. 

 I have been obliged to dissent wholly from Arnott and you, that it is 

 the Xanthochymus ovalifolius, and Arnott now agrees with me so far, 

 but he has fallen into at least as great a blunder. It is undoubtedly, as 

 I think, the Garcinia (Mangostana Gcert,) morella of Desrousseaux and 

 Gcertner. Arnott now thinks it Garcinia 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. Murray says 

 the tree is Stalagmitis Cambogioides, but his description will not apply 

 to my plant, from which I have a great quantity of excellent Gam- 

 boge. I have sent a specimen to Mr. Don to request that he will com- 

 pare it with the specimens in the Bankean Herbarium, from which 

 Murray's description was taken. If the same, the generic name Stalag- 

 mitis may yet be retained, and the description only altered. If not 

 the same, it must form the type of a new genus, to which I find Gar- 

 cinia elliptica of Wallich also belongs ; it is especially characterized by 

 the stamens, of which I send you a figure." 



The point on which Dr. Graham, finds it necessary wholly to dis- 

 sent from us is thus briefly stated at page 102 of the Prodromus. 

 " There can now be little doubt of this (Xanthochymus ovalifolius) 

 being the only plant in Ceylon that yields gamboge fit for the arts, and 

 that consequently the specific name of Gambogia gutta Linn, ought to 

 have been applied to this species and not to Garcinia Cambogia." 



The evidence contained in Dr. Graham's letter seems so completely 

 to invalidate the correctness of our statement, that it might appear use- 

 less to attempt any refutation ; yet I am not satisfied that he is either 

 wholly right, or that we are wholly wrong. I do not think him right in 

 considering the tree of which he has got specimens, as the only one 

 that produces gamboge fit to be used in the arts, nor do 1 think it is 

 the one which produces the true Ceylon gamboge. I do not think so, 

 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 considered inferior to the former. The gam- 

 boge, from the tree in question, specimens of which I have seen, is 



