Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/17

 OF THE

I. Some Information respecting the Lignum Rhodium of Pococke's Travels, in a Letter to Alexander Macleay, Esq. F.R.S.Sec. L.S. By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. Pr.L.S., &c.

Read February 21, 1815.

of botanical history has just been cleared up by my examinations of the manuscripts and dried specimens of the late Dr. J. Sibthorp, which, not being admissible into the Flora Græca, I think proper to rescue from oblivion, by requesting you to lay it before the Linnean Society.

Pococke, in his well-known "Description of the East," vol. ii. part 1. p. 230, speaking of Cyprus, has the following passage:

"Most of the trees in the island are evergreen; but it is most famous for the tree called by the natives Xylon Effendi, the Wood of our Lord, and by naturalists Lignum Cyprinum and Lignum Rhodium, because it grows in these two islands. It is called also the Rose Wood, by reason of its smell. Some say it is in other parts of the Levant, and also in the isle of Martinico. It grows like the Platanus or Plane-tree, and bears a seed or mast like that, only the leaf and fruit are rather smaller. The botanists Rh