ON THE LAURDS CASSIA. 
219 
by the light Mr. Marshall has thrown on them, our difficulties 
vanish like mist before the noon-day sun, though' Mr. Mar- 
shall himself has found it "difficult to conceive how the Da- 
walkurundu obtained the appellation of Laurus Cassia, from 
Linnaeus." It was because Linnseus's specimen of Dawalku- 
rundu was neither in flower nor in fruit. Had it been so, he 
was too acute an observer ever to have confounded it with 
the plants with which he has associated it in his synonyms. 
This explanation, it may be answered, is mere assumption on 
my , part — it certainly is so, but supported by so strong cir- 
cumstantial evidence, as not to leave a doubt of its correct- 
ness. Linnaeus has in his " Flora Zeylanica" given a short 
description of each of these species: his description of the 
cinnamon is principally confined to the flower, and is most 
precise. In his description of the other, the flower is not 
once alluded to. Here he declares, that he knows not by 
w T hat mark to distinguish it from the " camphorifera Japo- 
nensium" which in its foliage it greatly resembles, but no- 
thing can be more distinct than its inflorescence ; that of the 
camphor tree being a panicle, having a stalk as long as the 
leaves; while in Dawalkurundu it may be described as a sub- 
sessile capitulum, that is, 5 or 6 sessile flowers congested on 
the apex of a very short peduncle, and surrounded by an in- 
volucrum of 4 or 5 leaves ; several of w T hich capitula usually 
form verticels round the naked parts of the branches where 
the leaves have fallen. He begins his description of Laurus 
Cassia* by stating that he at first considered it a variety of 
the antecedent (cinnamon ;) but now, that he knows not by 
what mark to distinguish it from " camphorifera Japo- 
nensium" for the leaves are thinner than -those of cinnamon, 
the nerves uniting above the base as in camphorifera, and 
are sprinkled beneath with a grayish dew (subtus rore csesio 
* " Hanc speciem olim pro antecedents varietate habui, nunc vero, qua 
nota banc a camphorifera .Taponensium distinguam, non novi : Folia enim 
cinnamomo tenuiora, nervis ante basin coeuntibus ut in camphorifera) sub- 
tus rore caesio illinita, ut Camphora, et simul lanceolata ac tenuiori sub- 
stantia quam pnecedentis." — Linn. Flor. Zeylanica, p. 62. 
