[ 437 ] 
more properly come into his twenty-fecond clafs of 
Dioecia , than his fifth of Pentandria , into which he 
ranges the Rhus. At the bottom of the chara&er s 
of that genus he has added a note, to fhew tl)e 
varnifh-tree is fo: 
But as there are feveral other fpecies, which agree 
in this efTential character of diflinCtion ; fo, accord- 
ing to theLinnaean. fyftem, they fhould be feparated 
from the Rhus, with another generical title. 
Mr. Ellis obferves, upon the poetical defcription, 
which he fays Kcempfer has given of the leaves of the 
wild varnifh-tree turning red in the autumn, that he 
had not found it to be the cafe of the tree growing in 
the ftove at Bufbridge. How it appeared in that fitua- 
tion, I know not ; but the leaves of all thofe, which 
are growing in the Chelfea garden, and ftand in the 
open air, do conftantly change to a purple colour in 
the autumn, before they fall off from the fhrub : 
but thofe of the true varnifh-tree are much more re- 
markable for the deepnefs of their colour. 
Mr. Ellis fays, he had received a letter from Dr. 
Sibthorp, profeffor of botany at Oxford, in which 
the Doctor informs him, that there is no fpecimen 
of the true varnifh-tree in the Sherardian collection 
at Oxford y, but that there is one of fflfi-no-ki , or 
fpurious varnifh-tree of Kaempfer. Blow the DoCtor 
could write fo, I cannot conceive ; for I am very fure 
there was no fpecimen of the latter in that collection 
while it- remained in London, having myfelf often 
viewed that part of it : and fure I am,- Dr. Dillenius 
never added that fynonym to the former : and I do 
believe the latter was no other way known in Europe, 
than by Kcempfer’s figure and defcription of it, ex- 
4. cepting 
