NOMENCLATURE. 239 



that vernacular names should not be mere translations 

 of the Latin ones. 



Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name to some 

 historical fact belonging to the plant or to the person, 

 whose name it bears, as Linncea borealis from the great 

 botanist of the north ; Murrcea exotica after one of his 

 favourite pupils, a foreigner ; Browallia demisa and 

 data, from a botanist of humble origin and character, 

 who afterwards became a lofty bishop, and in whose 

 work upon water I find the following quotation from 

 Seneca in the hand-writing of Linnaeus : " Many might 

 attain wisdom, if they did not suppose they had already 

 attained it." In like manner Buffonia tenuifolia i3 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 pompous Sir John Hill. I mean not 

 to approve of such satires. They stain the purity of 

 our lovely science. If a botanist does not deserve 

 commemoration, let him sink peaceably into oblivion. 

 It savours of malignity to make his crown a crown of 

 thorns, and if the application be unjust, it is truly diabe 

 lical."* 



* Smith's Introduction. 



