XIV rREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION'. 



deer, porcine deer ; llio iiionito]-, a guana ; and the bloodsucker, a chameleon. 

 Tlie adjutant is a gull; the eagle, a swan ; the hornbill, a crane; (he sunhii'd, 

 a skylark ; and the grey heron, a water hen. 



In a work translated from the Biirmese into English, and printed at 

 the expense of Government, the Burmese name of the common wild ox, 

 Bos somldii'iis, is translated bison; the sambur or rusa deer is elk; barking deer, 

 sj)otted deer ; the eagle is an adjutant ; cranes are called ci/ruxscn ; sunbirds 

 hnan-soJ; ; a coluber is translated a Ictuj snake ; a crocodile, an alligator ; the 

 toad, a "rough frog." Tin in one jdace is lead; and pewter, or a mixed metal 

 resembling it, is translated " white cojiper." The Bengal quince is rendered 

 oJ;sheet ; one species of millet, nap, another species of millut, barley ; barley is 

 translated mayau in one place, and iiiacr in another; arum is " i)ing (root)," 

 a species of yam, tluuhio; and the corypha palm, the palmyra paliu. 



This last error maj' be supposed to be of little consequence, and yet 

 through it, the whole paragraph in which it occurs becomes false, and 

 illustrates a ijrecisely opjaosite argument from that for which it is brought. 

 The writer says, " As regards the inheritance like a palmyra tree, it is 

 the natui'e of this tree not to grow from cuttings or .shoots. Having lived its 

 time, it flowers and bears fruit. AYhen the fruit has fallen off, the parent 

 tree dies. After its death each fruit becomes a tree, and continues the family. 

 Whilst the tree was alive, no other tree could be produced ; so only on the 

 death of their parents do children inherit." The palmyra tree produces its 

 fruits annually, as regularlj' as the ajjple tree, and young trees may be raised 

 from it as easily as from apple seeds, while the parent tree is still living ; 

 so, if the comparison proves anything, it proves that children maj' inherit 

 before the death of the j^arent, just the converse of that for which the 

 comparison was made. Let however the original word be correctly trans- 

 lated, and no simile can be more striking and approj)riate. A corj^pha palm, 

 after it has borne fruit, lifts its blackened leafless head above all tlic other 

 trees of the forest, like the dead father of the woods struck by lightning. 



Where two or more systematic names are attached to an article in 

 this work, they are, unless the contrary be indicated, the different names by 

 which the same object is designated by different writers. In Zoology, these 

 synonyines have been selected principally from articles published in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society by Dr. Cantor and ]\lr. Blj^th. In Botanj-, 

 the first name is the one under which the article will bo found in Yoigt's 

 Catalogue, if in that work, and in other modern writers ; while the second 

 is the Linnean name or the one by which it was described by Roxburgh 

 and by other authors of the old school. 



The utility of these synonymes will be best understood by an example. 



