Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/21

Rh " might induce a suspicion of its having been obtained from thence; but no Europæans were settled in that island previous to the year 1635, nor do we know that the tree, being a native of North America, would grow in so hot a climate.

How the Liquidambar Styraciflua travelled to Cyprus, must therefore remain unexplained; for we have not even a legend to help us, like that of the staff of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury. That so great a novelty should have acquired considerable reputation in the garden of a Cyprian convent, so as to have even supernatural properties attributed to it, may not so much excite our wonder. Its celebrity indeed appears to have declined between the periods of Dr. Pococke's visit and Dr. Sibthorp's, but the tree itself still flourished. Dr. Sibthorp, like his predecessor, found it forming seed; yet it does not appear to have scattered its progeny over the neighbourhood, as, in so fine a climate, it might have been expected to have done, though I have never heard of its bringing any seed to perfection in England, where it rarely even blossoms.

Norwich, Feb. 20, 1815.

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