REY.S. MATEER ON THE TAMIL POPULAR NAMES OF PLANTS. 27 
Frank) or the Quilon Mango; Poinciana pulcherrima is Peacock 
Cassia; the Bixa or Arnotta shrub, monkey-yellow ; the Bapaw is 
the Feringhee or the Curry Castor-oil ; the Casuarina, wind-trem- 
bler or whip-tree, names suggested by the waving of the branches 
and the strange melancholy whisper of the wind through these 
trees, and by the use of their tough pliant branches as whips or 
rods. The potato is denominated “round root," and liquorice 
“very sweet root.” Lantana indica also is simply “ hedge- 
plant,” being generally used for fences. 
Not only are there many deficiencies, but serious and absurd 
errors occur in this rude mode of natural classification. 
* Arasu,” for example (which appears to mean “ the royal tree ””), 
is the correct designation of the noble and sacred Ficus religiosa ; 
but Thespesia populnea, a malvaceous tree, is called “ flowering 
arasu," Puvarasu, which has come to be written in English Portia. 
And even Trewia nudiflora, a Euphorbiaceous tree, is dignified 
with the name of “attu puvarasu,” the river flowering arasu. 
Here we have the same term applied to plants of three distinct 
and strikingly dissimilar orders. 
Again, *varei" is the common name of the various species of 
Musa (plantains or bananas) ; but Canna indica,.or Indian shot, 
certainly not unlike a plantain in habit, if not in size, is “ pū- 
varei,” the flowering plantain ; and even Commelina benghalensis, 
a mere straggling herbaceous plant, is called kanavarei, forest- 
plantain. 
* Tarei" (from “tar” to be low, to recline) denotes the Pandanus 
or screw-pine; but “ kattarei,” rock- or stone-tarei, is applied to 
Aloé indica. 
* Tamarei " is the Lotus, Water-Lily ; but the Euphorbiaceous 
tree, Macaranga indica, is actually named ^ vattatamarei," round 
or orbicular tamarei, possibly fro m the slight resemblance which its 
large peltate leaves bear to the orbicular leaves of the Velumbium. 
Then the fragrant labiate Orthosiphon bracteatum is called “ rock- 
tamarei,” and Pistia stratiotes ** agasa tamarei,” or sky-lotus, per- 
haps from some comparison of the water in which it floats while 
growing to the sky above. 
All this is just what we might expect from a people so inexact 
and fanciful as the Tamilians, seizing the most trifling and acci- 
dental points of resemblance, and bestowing names upon plants 
almost at haphazard, without caring to investigate their essential 
and distinctive characters. The popular names of British plants, 
