^82 



SPECIFIC NAMES. 



kind, as Lobelia Coliimnea, meaning Co- 

 lumne<e for mis. We may allow a few such, 

 already established, to remain, but no ju- 

 dicious author will imitate them. 



Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name 

 to some historical fact belonging to the plant 

 or to the person whose name it bears, as Lin- 

 ncea boreal is from the great botanist of the 

 Dorth ; Murrcca exotica after one of his fa- 

 vourite pupils, a foreigner ; Brotcallia de- 

 miss a and data, from a botanist of humble 

 origin and character, who afterwards became 

 $ lofty bishop, and in whose work upon wa- 

 ter I iind the following quotation from Se- 

 neca in the hand-writing of Linnaeus : " Many 

 might attain wisdom, if they did not sup- 

 pose they had already reached it." In like 

 manner Buffonia tenuifolia is well known to 

 be a satire on the slender botanical pretensions 

 of the great French zoologist, as the Hillia 

 parasitica of Jacquin, though perhaps not 

 meant, is an equally just one upon our pomp- 

 ous Sir John Hill I mean not to approve of 

 such satires. They stain the purity of our 

 lovely science. If a botanist does not de- 

 serve commemoration, let him sink peaceably 



