system. At first it was thought to be a species of jasmine,* probably from some distant likeness and the fragrancy of its flowers; but as it hardly agreed in any other particular, it was afterwards doubted if it could properly be referred to that tribe, and at last John Ellis, Esq., F. R. S. declared this plant to be a distinct genus, and gave it the name of gardenia. This gentleman concluded that the plant then in question, must be very different from a jasmine, as well from the unlikeness in its leaves and stipulas, as principally from the seed-vessel being placed below the receptacle of the flower; but not choosing to advance this on his own authority, he sent an account of it with dried specimens to Dr. Linnæus at Upsal, whose known extensive skill in every part of natural history, has rendered his opinion among all the professors of that science to be of the best authority. The Dr. answered that the situation of the seed-vessel, and the peculiarity of the calyx, were sufficient to persuade him of its being a new genus; but as the stamina must be uncertain in double flowers, he could not then undertake to determine its characters. However soon afterwards Dr. Linnæus wrote word that he had found a single flower of this same plant, among some specimens from the East Indies, and no longer scrupled to agree to Mr. Ellis's determination of the gardenia. There wanted nothing then but an account of the fruit; and especially the number of seeds; and Mr. Ellis, who was well acquainted with observations on the most minute parts of nature, soon discovered that the seed-vessel contained rudiments of many seeds; though it seems the veracity of this particular has been much questioned; which doubtless has arisen from the imperfect state that all fruits and seeds commonly appear in, after double flowers, as in the present case. But by good fortune, at Mr. Carteret Webb's at Bushbridge, Dr. S. discovered a specimen of this shrub in perfect fruit, gathered by Mr. Cunningham, in the East Indies, where that gentleman travelled for discovery of natural curiosities. On dissecting the fruit for examination, he found that the generical characters of the gardenia given by Mr. Ellis in the Phil. Trans., vol 51, p. 929, were very complete. Dr. S. adds a few particulars, that could not be seen. in an imperfect or immature fruit. The seed-vessel when ripe, is egg-shaped, outwardly ribbed from the descending wings of the flower-cup, and within divided into two cells by a thin membranaceous partition. The seeds are many, at least more than 50 in each cell, compressed and surrounded with a mucilaginous substance. The mucilage here mentioned was so little hardened in the fruit he examined, that the seeds themselves were quite soft and inclined to be moist. Recollecting that Dr. Plukenet had figured many of Mr. Cunningham's plants, Dr. S. had recourse to his Gazo * Miller Dict. and fig. + Ehret fig. Phil. Trans. 1760. p. 929. phylacium, and there found an engraving of this plant, pl. 448, n. 4, and that it was twice mentioned in his Amaltheum, pages 29, 212. From the observations which Dr. Plukenet,* Dr. Petiver, and Mr. Ray-† had received from Mr. Cunningham, Dr. S. learned that the Chinese use the seeds of gardenia jasminoides as a scarlet dye; and as the mucilaginous substance in which the seeds are involved, seems to be very copious and rich of colour, he imagines must be worth inquiry, whether this shrub may not be found, and transported to such of the British colonies where it might be propagated; and perhaps become one of the most useful plants, as it is now one of the most beautiful. He tried these seeds in water, spirits, and other liquors, and always found them tinge the menstruum yellow, notwithstanding they had been gathered near 80 years. To confirm himself in the discovery he had made, he obtained leave to look over the collections of dried plants in the British Museum, where many are preserved, that can no where else be met with, and by the assistance of the assiduous Mr. Empson, he found several good specimens of this valuable shrub, viz. in Hort. Sicc. xx, p. 25, 86; xciv, p. 130; CCXLVII, p. 25; CCLXXXIX, p. 33; and cccxxxi, p. 90; all gathered in the East Indies by Mr. Cunningham. The greater part of these specimens were in fruit, but one or two with perfect biossoms, and they were so exactly corresponding with Mr. Ellis's account, that he could find nothing to alter or add to it. There is however one thing he would not omit mentioning, as it may in some measure account for the unequal number of the divisions in the double blossoms; it is that some of the specimens at the British Museum have their calyx divided into 5, and others into 6 sigments or wings, which show that the inequality is not altogether peculiar to the double flowers; and Dr. S. had drawings made from the best samples he could find in the collection, the better to explain what he has said; viz. pl. 15, fig. A, shows a specimen with a single blossom; fig. B, another with the fruit, both gathered in China by Mr. Cunningham; fig. c, a capsul with only 5 divisions in the calyx (which Dr. S. supposes to be the natural number) taken from another dried specimen of the same gentleman's; fig. D, a transverse section of the same capsule, to show the two cells, with many seeds in them; and fig. E represents the seeds of their natural size. It may not be amiss here to insert what is said relative to the names of this • Semina tinctoribus inserviunt, iis enim ab indigenis Sinensibus optime tingitur nobilis ille color, quem escarlatinum nostrates vocant, ut nos monuit vir multiplicis industriæ, atque indefessi laboris hac in parte D. Jacobus Cunninghamus. Plukn. Amalth. p. 29.-Orig. + Hujus fructus celebris est, et in frequenti usu apud Chinenses ad colorem coccineum, seu scarlasinum tingendum. Ray Hist. 111. p. 233.-Orig. shrub, by such botanical writers as he had an opportunity to consult. The first author that gives an account of this plant, is Dr. Plukenet, after him Mr. Petiver, and Mr. Ray; but none of them have given a true botanical name or description, much less referred it to its proper class, order, or genus; and notwithstanding so many good specimens were preserved in the botanical collections of Sir Hans Sloane, now in the British Museum, it was not further noticed till the ingenious Mr. Miller, of Chelsea, gave the description and drawing in his Gardener's Dictionary and Figures of Plants, from the plant he saw at Mr. Warner's garden. Mr. Ehret soon afterwards published a most elegant figure of it, and Mr. Ellis at last completed the botanical description, in the Phil. Trans. Those gentlemen have mentioned this shrub, under the following names: Arbuscula Sinensis, myrti majoris folio, vasculo seminali hexagono, ad singulos angulos alis foliaceis munito, quæ porrectæ vasculi coronam efformant, Umki Sinensibus dicta. Plukn. Amalth. p. 29. Umki, alias Umuy; cujus fructum ad colorem escarlatinum tingendum inservit; florem fert rosaceum, album, hexapetalum. Plukn. Amalth. p. 212. tab. 448. f. 4. Frutex cynosbati fructu alato, tinctorio, barbulis longioribus coronato. Petiv. Mus. p. 498. Ray. Hist. III. p. 233. Jasminum foliis lanceolatis oppositis integerrimis, calycibus acutioribus. Mill. Dict. n. 7. Mill. fig. 180. Jasminum? ramo unifloro pleno, petalis coriaceis. Ehret. fig. Gardenia jasminoides. Ellis, Philos. Trans. 1760, p. 929, tab. 23. One circumstance still remains to be inquired into, namely, the native place of this shrub. That it grows spontaneously in China and the neighbouring countries, he does not in the least doubt, because Dr. Linnæus has had his specimen from thence; and Mr. Cunningham tells us, in his time, it was found there in such plenty, that they could collect and use its seeds for dying. Neither does he doubt that Capt. Hutchenson procured the plant he brought over from the Cape of Good Hope, especially as there are specimens of it with double blossoms among the curious plants that were brought over from that place to Mr. Desmarets, now in the British Museum, Hort. Sicc. CCLXI, p. 30. But as those have double flowers, and having never heard of any with single blossoms being gathered in that country, Dr. S. can scarcely believe it is an indigenous plant there, but rather imagines that it must have been brought thither from the East Indies, either by accident or for their gardens. Dr. S. once more repeats, that as this plant may probably be of real benefit by improving the art of dying, he would beg leave therefore to recommend it to all public-spirited gentlemen, to use their best endeavours, for discovering and bringing over from the East Indies some single blossomed plants, or the seeds, VOL. XI. 4 R of the Gardenia; and afterwards to consider of the properest place for planting and cultivating them for so valuable an end. CVII. Of the Male and Female Cochineal Insects,* that breed on the Cactus Opuntia, or Indian Fig, in South Carolina and Georgia. By John Ellis, Esq. p. 661. Mr. E. hearing that this insect bred in great abundance on the Cactus Opuntia of Linnæus's Species Plantarum, p. 468, in South Carolina and Georgia, where it is a native and grows in great plenty, as well as on the Cactus Coccinellifer of the same author, which grows in Mexico, and has been for many years introduced into Jamaica, he wrote to Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charles Town, South Carolina, to send him some of the joints of the Cactus Opuntia, with the insects on it; which he did the latter end of the year 1757. These specimens were full of the nests of this insect, in which it appeared in its various states, from the most minute, when it walks about, to the state when it becomes fixed, and wrapt up in a fine web, which it spins about itself. The female (which was here alive and in plenty) is well described by Mons. Reaumur, Dr. Brown of Jamaica, and by Dr. Linnæus, in his System of the animal kingdom, under the title of Coccus Cacti Coccinelliferi, p. 457, N° 17, from a living insect sent him from Surinam, by Mr. Rolander, in the year 1756; but neither Reaumur, Brown, nor Linnæus had ever seen the male. As this ge nus of insects is placed by Dr. Linnæus under the hemipeteræ or half winged, it may be necessary to know that he comprehends in this class not only those whose wings are half covered with a crustaceous case, but such also as have vings only on one sex. In order to find out the male fly, Mr. E. examined all the webs in these specimens, besides a large parcel which the Dr. had sent picked off from the plants in Carolina; and at last discovered 3 or 4 minute dead flies with white wings; these he moistened in weak spirit of wine, and examining them in the microscope, he discovered their bodies to be of a bright red colour, which convinced him of their being the true male Cochineal insect: to be confirmed in his opinion, he immediately communicated his discovery to Dr. Garden, which he accompanied with an exact microscopical drawing, and desired he would send some account of their economy, with some male insects of his own collecting, which he was so kind to do in the spring, with some observations on them, which are as follows. “In August 1759 I catched a male Cochineal fly, and examined it in your aquatic microscope. It is seldom a male fly is met with. I imagine there may be 150 or 200 females for one male. The male is a very active creature and well * It is to be observed that the species here described by Mr. Ellis, is not the true or genuine cochtneal cultivated in Mexico, but is very strongly allied to it, though of an inferior kind as to use. nay made, but slender in comparison of the females, which are much larger and more shapeless, and seemingly lazy, torpid and inactive. They appear generally so overgrown, that their that their eyes and mouth are quite sunk in their rugæ or wrinkles, their antennæ and legs are almost covered by them, and are so impeded in their motions from these swellings about the insertions of their legs, that they scarcely can move them, much less move themselves. The male's head is very distinct from the neck, the neck being much smaller than the head, and much more so than the body. The thorax is elliptical, and something longer than the head and neck together, and flattish underneath: from the front there arise two long antennæ (much longer than the antennæ of the females) which the insect moves every way very briskly. These antennæ are all jointed, and from every joint there come out 4 short setæ placed 2 on each side. It has 3 jointed legs on each side, and moves very briskly and with great speed. From the extremity of the tail, there arise 2 long setæ or hairs, 4 or 5 times the length of the insect. They diverge as they lengthen, are very slender, and of a pure snow white colour. It has 2 wings, which take their rise from the back part of the shoulders or thorax, and lie down horizontally like the wings of the common fly, when the insect is walking: they are oblong, rounded at the extremity, and become suddenly small near the point of insertion: they are much longer than the body, and have 2 long nerves, one running from the basis of the wing along the external margin, and arches to meet a slender one that runs along the under and inner edge; they are quite thin, slender, transparent, and of a snowy whiteness. The body of the male is of a lighter red than the body of the female, and not near so large." To this description of Dr. Garden's, which agrees very nearly with the microscopical drawings of both sexes of this insect, a and c, pl. 16, it may be added that the female has a remarkable proboscis or awl-shaped papilla, that arises in the midst of the breast. This Linnæus calls the rostrum, and thinks it the mouth: if so, besides the office of supplying it with nourishment during the time of its moving about, it is the tube through which the fine double filament proceeds, with which it forms its delicate white web, in order to accommodate itself in its torpid state, during its pregnancy; till the young ones creep out of its body to shift for themselves, and form a new generation. In this torpid state the legs and antennæ grow no more, but the animal swells up to an enormous size in proportion to its first minute creeping state. The legs, antenna, and proboscis, are so small with respect to the rest of the body, that they cannot be easily discovered without very good eyes or magnifying glasses; so that to an indifferent eye, it looks full as like a berry as an animal. This was the occasion of that contest mentioned by Pomet and other authors, which subsisted so many years, whether it was an animal or a vegetable production. But if persons of curiosity will give themselves the trouble to soak a |
