Taxonomy and Naming
Gardenia jasminoides was described by English botanist John Ellis in 1761, after it had been conveyed to England in the 1750s. It gained its association with the name jasmine as the botanist and artist Georg Dionysius Ehret had depicted it and queried whether it was a jasmine as the flowers resembled the latter plant. The name stuck and lived on the old common name and scientific epithet. The name G. augusta of Linnaeus has been ruled invalid.
The common names cape jasmine and cape jessamine derive from the earlier belief that the flower originated in Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
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“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
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