362 CORRESPONDENCE, 
names worth —À ese $ think icis are Hes for - aed many plants I 
should not have see them by such 
names given in the abdo: and it is wonder on ooking z these ate, " id 
how well the system is carried out. It is, of co 
people with no written language ; n do not sane primit or Javanese, but a 
peculiar dialect called Sundanese.” (Kew Journ, Botany, vol. vii. 1855, p. 80.) 
In a recent conversation, Motley’s remarks as to the accuracy of veroscular 
ugh native names ara frogientiy the only clue we have to the origin of a 
product , yet at p caution with h regard o their use; 
ra Many plants, too, have 
distinctive names s for the individual, and its Deest: parts and product (e. g. 
nucifera, L.), these names being frequently quoted indifferently, thus 
giving rise to numerous mistakes. 'The change of country, of either native 
tribes or civilized immigrants, has a great influence on vernacular .nomencla- 
ture, the names of the ofr ants of their native country being bestowed on those 
of the new. Dr. Ernst, in his valuable aper on the ** Medicinal Plants of 
Venezuela and their Vernacular Names" (Seemann’s ‘Journal of Botany,’ 
Vol. III. p. 143), says, **... In Venezuela a plant often bears very different ver- 
nacular names. .. . The names I have collected are either of Indian or Spanish 
origin. At Caracas the Indian names are generally so corrupted that their 
original form could be traced only by a good Indian scholar, whilst in the in- 
terior, where the Spanish influence was less felt, many uncorrupted Indian 
names us still i in bag: 5 Hs ainorret: Mak ihe Spanish names are of three kinds, 
1 kt As 
viz.—1, Europe; 2, Names of European 
plants transferred to American: ones, whi dn habit «- use sas some resem- 
blance to them ; and 3, N p ae 3 
à, plant DCIOIC, 
seldom having an intelligible meaning. ; 
Native names, at present, are scattered through innumerable publications, 
and a universal nomenclature would be an immense boon. To make -— : 
work as complete as vent it would be desirable that lists of plants, 
their vernacular names, should be solicited from botanists of the localities vit 
which they are best acquainted. These should ue with regard to su 
names, localities where used, synonymy, if any, whether pure or Susa, 
derivation and meaning, whether applied as a collective or individual term, or 
to the parts or product of a plant. I shall be glad to receive any such lists, 
other than Britis 
Dr. eos referred to my labours in economie botany. 
value, vom. they may have, much of the eredit belongs to him as editor of 
* This does not seem to iun ee (Prod. xvi.). adio: 
tical with Castanopsis argent 
< 
