CH A NGES OF NAMES. QQ I 



a comparative kind, as Lobelia Columnece, meaning 

 ColumnecB formls. We may allow a few such, already 

 established, to remain, but no judicious 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 Linucea horeaUs from the 

 great botanist of the north ; Marrcea exotica after one 

 of his favourite pupils, a foreigner ; BroxvalUa demissa 

 and elata, from a botanist of humble origin and cha- 

 racter, who afterwards became a lofty bishop, and in 

 whose work upon water I find the following quotation 

 from Seneca in the liand-writing of Linnaeus : ^' Many 

 might attain wisdom, if they did not suppose they had 

 already reached it." In like manner Buffonia tenui' 

 jol'ia is well known to be a satire on the slender bota- 

 nical pretensions of the great French zoologist, as tlie 

 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 bo- 

 tanist 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 applica- 

 tion be unjust, it is truly diabolical. 



Before I conclude the subject of nomenclature, I 

 beg leave to offer a iew reflections on changes of esta- 

 blished names. It is generally agreed among mankind 

 that names of countries, places, or things, sanctioned 



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