136 Dr. Francis Hamizron’s Commentary 
which we shall soon have occasion to return. When, however, 
Linnæus published the second edition of his Species Plantarum, 
he added many other synonyma, and among these an American 
plant described by Catesby ; from which alone, as M. Lamarck 
justly observes (Enc. Meth. ii. 495.), he seems to have drawn his 
specific character, this probably having been the only one of the 
plants quoted that he had actually seen. 
M. Lamarck, therefore, returns to the first supposition of Lin- 
nzeus, and gives the Katou Alou as the true Ficus Indica, refer- 
ring to itall the synonyma of old botanists, who meant to describe 
the tree of Pliny and Theophrastus ;—but what probability is 
there that a tree growing neglected in the obscure parts of the 
South, should be that noticed by the Greeks and Romans in 
the North of India, while in every part the Peralu is cultivated 
with a religious veneration? The very Malabar names show 
the difference: A/u or Alou being the generic name, Per signi- 
fies Tree, as if we should say Arbor Alou dicta by way of excel- — 
lence ; while Katou implies this species of Alou to be the sylves- 
tris, to use the language of the older botanists. In the same 
manner the Peralu by the Brahmans of Malabar is called Vad- 
hou (from Vata of the Sanscrit) by way of excellence; while the 
Katou Alou is distinguished by a specific term ( Doulo) prefixed, 
to mark its not being the true prototype of the genus. I approve 
therefore entirely of the change made by Willdenow, who, 
although he knew nothing of the Katou Alou except from the 
Hortus Malabaricus, calls it Ficus citrifolia (Sp. Pl. iv. 1137.). 
Dr. Roxburgh, so far as we can judge from the Hortus Ben- 
galensis, would not seem to have seen any tree which he referred 
to the Ficus citrifolia or Katou Alou: but in the South of India 
I found a tree which I should have had no doubt was the same, 
had I ever seen roots descending from its branches; but this I 
never did, and the natives assured me that it does not possess 
this 
