* from its inventor, an Italian, of the Frangipani family, 
* so conspicuous in the Roman disturbances of the twelfth 
* century.” 
* The genus is named after Charles Plumier, a French 
* botanist and ecclesiastic, born in 1646. He belonged to 
* the religious order of Minims, and is described as of a 
* simplicity of character becoming his monastic profession, 
* if not invariably associated with it. To this he added the 
* most enthusiastic love of Botany, and a degree of ac- 
* curacy and penetration rarely excelled in that science. 
* He was sent, at the expense of the French King, on three 
“ different voyages to the West Indies; and was about to 
* undertake a fourth, when he died of a pleurisy at Cadiz, 
* in 1704, aged 58." 
“ Besides the works published by himself, vast treasures 
* of his drawings, in outline, have remained in the French 
* libraries. The late Lord Bute obtained copies of great 
* numbers of these, which, after his death, passed into the 
* hands of Sir Joseph Banks (since then, with the whole 
** library and Herbarium, into those of Mr. Brown). Bo- 
* erhaave had previously procured copies of above 500, 
te done by the accurate Aubriet, under Vaillant's inspection, 
** which were afterwards, in great part at least, published 
* by John Burmann, at Amsterdam, between the years 
« 1755 and 1760. These plates are executed with tolerable, 
* but by no means infallible, accuracy, being far inferior 
“to what Plumier himself published. The well-meaning 
* editor has overloaded the book with descriptions of his 
* own, necessarily made from the figures, and therefore 
* entirely superfiuous. They are indeed not unfrequently 
* founded upon misapprehension; nor has he been very . 
“happy in bis adaptation of his materials to Linnzan 
“names and principles. He ought rather, as Lamarck ob- 
* serves, to have given Plumier's materials without altera- 
* tion or addition. A careful reader may, nevertheless, 
“ avoid being misled ; as the original names and definitions 
* of the author are subjoined. It is a pity that nothing is 
* preserved of the native country, history, properties, or 
* colours, of each plant." 
* He left no Herbarium of his own, his collection of 
** dried plants having been lost at sea; but he had, on va- 
“ rious occasions, communicated dried specimens to Tour- 
