CORRESPONDENCE. 361 
plants, However, it is often the case that names are stated to be those of trees, 
whereas they may be only those of the products common to several 
Though I value vernacular names most highly, and do not depreciate them 
as lam charged with doing, yet it must be remembered that very different 
opinions have been expressed respecting them. 
Dr. Wight says, * We must bear in mind that in India, as in England, the 
same plants have different names in different provinces, and not unfrequently 
the same name is given to a variety of plants, or, vice versá, a great variety of 
change by being applied to plants different from those to which they were 
originally given,—the only way, indeed, to account for the wide a 
often found in the names given to the same plants by different perso 
ing t the same language.” (‘ Illustrations of Indian Botany,’ vol. i., introd.. N otice, 
pu 
And again, Surgeon-Major Balfour has the following :—“ I may mention that 
uired against placing undue reliance on native terms. It is a very 
the use of vi ar es 
most useful plants that are known by definite and generally-received appella- 
tions. observes, in a recent number of the * Madras Quarterly 
ie 
Journal,’ that an entire dependence on native names, without reference to bo- 
tanical characters or sensible properties, will often lead into 
in his ‘ Himalayan Journals,’ mentions that throughout his devi he 
had asin struck with the undue reliance placed on the native names for 
plants." (‘Timber Trees of India,’ Madras, 1862, preface.) 
= should be added, however, that neither Dr. Wight nor Dr. Wallich pos- 
any accurate knowledge of the pb Indian —Ó which greatly 
eic their opinion on this particular poi t, however, resist the 
ncm of quoting from a letter (dated beats Oct. 1864) by Mr. Motley 
— nie on the subject :— 
mountaineers, however, are botanists to an extent you would 
system of generic and s 
se S poem of s iii Pavetta, he said at once, “I never saw this be- 
fore, and I don’t know its own name, but its ‘mother-name’ is so-and-so,” men- 
tioning the native generic term for Pavetta, Ixora, and such plants in general. 
The authors of the ‘ Catalogue of the Buitenzorg Garden’ hen thought these 
VoL. VII. [DECEMBER 1, 1809.] 2c 
