Linxjeus had followed preceding botanifls in uniting the 

 plant, with the figure of which we now prefent our readers, to 

 the genus Nymphaea, calling it Nymphaea Nclumbo; but on 

 account of the very remarkable difference in the ftruclure of 

 the fruit, later botanifts found it neceffary to raife it into a 

 «iew genus: accordingly Adanson, Gartner, Jussieu, and 

 Willdenow adopted Lin nous's trivial name, the vulgar 

 appellation of the plant in the iiland of Ceylon. For the fake 

 of uniformity of language, Jussieu gave it a Latin termination, 

 and Nelumbium has been fince generally admitted. But 

 Dr. Smith, departing from his great matter's precept, that 

 a Juitable name is not to be changed even for a better, prefers 

 Cyamus, a name under which the fame plant is defcribed by 

 Theophrastus, and therefore, doubtlefs, unobjectionable, 

 had it been at all neceffary to feek a new one. It may be re- 

 marked, however, that this name is not given by Theophras- 

 tus exclulively to this plant, as the worthy President feems 

 to have imagined ; it before belonged to a leguminous plant, 

 probably, fome kind of bean, common in Greece, and was 

 applied to the Nelumbium merely on account of the fimilarity 

 of the feed, juft as our Engltfh voyagers give the name of 

 apples, pears, and goofeberries, to fuch tropical fruits as bear 

 fome fort of refemblance to the produce of their own country, 

 and precifely as Herodotus had long before, in defcribing 

 the lame plant, called it a rofe-coloured Lily ; on which 

 account, by the bye, another botanift may think, that Crinum 

 has every right and title to be preferred, and thus names may 

 be altered without end.* 



Dr. Smith accufes us, in common with other modern 

 writers, of confounding the Nymphjea Lotus with this plant, 

 but certainly without juft ground. Indeed, no botanift can 

 poflibly have miftaken the one for the other, fince the publi- 

 cations of GiERTNER and Jussieu, however the mythological 

 hiftory of thefe plants may have been occafionally mifappHed. 

 If any difficulties remained, thefe have been fince cleared up 



f 



-* It may appear, at firft fight, that as the chapter begins "' o3i,w £fJ 

 >mW &c. that this name is applied exclufively to the plant of w , hic " 

 Theophrastus is here fpeaking, but in fome copies the reading is " ° c ' 

 *.v.»y*< t> 'AiyMlrffenu"; there is no occafion, however, to have recouri 

 to this reading, for the fentence is evidently continued from the end ot tw 

 former chapter, where the author is treating of aquatic plants growing * 

 Egypt, and confequently the repetition of the epithet Egyptian was unnecefltfjj 

 In other places Theophrastus has himfelf ufed the word xlay* t0 den ° , 

 fome kind of palfe, and it occurs repeatedly in the works of Hifpocrate 

 with the fame meaning. 



