PREFACE TO THK FIRST EDITION. XIU 



obtained from a species of agathis or dammara, a tree allied to the pines," 

 while hero it is obtained from the wood-oil tree famil_v, and a considerable 

 l^roportion of what Europeans often call daranier is a bard kind iif beeswax 

 produced by a bee tliat builds in hollow trees. 



With teachers like these, Europeans and Americans come to India and 

 find themselves in the midst of a fauna and flora with which tiny are 

 unac(piainted. In sections where there are lexicons that define correctly 

 the vernacular names, the dlfHculty is scarcely felt. In Wilson's Sanscrit 

 Dictionary, for instance, the systematic name of nearly every plant and 

 animal known to the language can be found at once ; but if, as in Farther 

 India, the lexicographers are as much in the daik as tlio inquirer who 

 consults them, he has no alternative but to remain in darkness, or sit down 

 to the patient study of the objects themselves, and to this trial the 

 translator of the Scriptures must address himself, for it is not optional 

 with liim, l)ut is a part of his professional duty to render, if possible, every 

 word of the original bj' its corresponding word in the vernacular, and he 

 is so far wanting in the trust committed to him by the churches or societies 

 whose ambassador he is, if he shrinlcs from any study recpiisite to qualify 

 him for the accurate performance of his work. 



In ordinary circumstances, the professional duties of most men preclude 

 them from bestowing the time and attention to the natural sciences necessary 

 to enable them to determine accuratclj' the character of the objects of 

 nature witli wliich they are unacquainted. It is not remarkable then that 

 our Chin-Indian literature abounds in error. Throughout India, wherever 

 there is European society, there is found a numerous class of English names 

 incorrectly applied to Indian productions, which almost nnavoidablj' lead 

 the translator or author astray, wlien unable to make a scientific examination 

 for himself. On this coast, for instance, it has passed from conversation to 

 books published within the last ten years, that turmeric is saffron ; the 

 flower of the thorn apple, the trumpet flower ; the tamarind tree, the 

 tamarisk, and its timber, iron wood ; the ebony tree is the cabbage tree of 

 one author, and the fig tree of another ; and ebony not being supposed to 

 exist, though abundant throughout the Provinces, is defined as "a kind of tree." 

 The fennel Howcr is " a kind of rice"; nettles, " a kind of thorn." Sweet flag, 

 sugar cane; and the date tree is the palmyra palm. Mica is talc ; serpentine, 

 jasj^er ; the carnelian, a garnet or ruby ; gamboge, realgar, the red sulphuret of 

 arsenic ; natron, the carbonate of soda, is saltpetre; the nitrate of potash and 

 antimonj' is bismuth according to one authority, and James' powder accord- 

 ing to another. The porcupine is a hedge-hog; the hedge-hog, a pangolin; 

 the shrew mouse, a musk rat; the sand badger or arctonix, a hya3na; barking 



