624 



some of his errors ; and truly are they described by the author of the 

 review as being " like the ravings of a maniac, whose origin or con- 

 nexion cannot be traced." But some of our readers will ask, " what 

 has the learned Dutchman's ' Systema Naturae ' to do with the plants 

 of the Mauritius ?" We reply, simply this ; that in the year of grace, 

 1846, eighty-one years after Mynheer Staatman, of the Hague, put 

 ibrth his curious tri-lingual ' Systematis Linncei corruptor^ as Haller 

 calls it, there is published in London, by a respectable house, the 

 first volume of a work of much pretension,* in the appendix to which 

 may be found an exact parallel, so far as blunders go, to the ingeni- 

 ous old Dutchman's puzzling production. 



With the historical, political and statistical portion of this volume 

 we have nothing to do in this place : our business is with that part of 

 the appendix which professes to give an account of "The Indigenous 

 Plants of the Mauritius," and to which we turned in expectation of 

 finding something new and interesting relative to the plants of a spot 

 rendered classical by St. Pierre's charming tale, ' Paul and Virginia.' 

 Something new there undoubtedly is ; for we were wholly unprepar- 

 ed to meet with such a farrago of ignorance and error as is here put 

 forth under the authority of a " B.A., F.R.G.S. ;" and again quoting 

 from the review of the Dutch book, we may truly say that " with re- 

 spect to the vegetable part, a young student might be much misled 

 by this work, and an old one puzzled in no small degree." We 

 could not understand the matter at all, until turning to the introduc- 

 tory paragraph, we found a statement to the effect that " the author 

 had collated a rather detailed account of the plants indigenous to the 

 Isle of France from the German and French botanical works of the 

 last century." Here, then, is the key to the mystery. The author, 

 utterly ignorant of Botany, yet conceited enough to suppose he can, 

 unassisted, add value to a book by subjoining details of a science of 

 which he absolutely knows nothing, gets together a heap of descrip- 

 tions from the " French and German botanical works of the last cen- 

 tury," and without consulting any competent individual, of whom 

 many might be met with in the metropolis, both able and willing to 

 render their assistance, sets to work, and, like the Dutchman, turns to 

 a dictionary for every word ; and though his perseverance may deserve 

 all praise, yet the result shows that "perseverance without judgment 



* England's Colonial Empire : an Historical, Political, and Statistical Account of 

 tlie Empire, its Colonies and Dependencies. By Charles Pridham, Esq., B.A., 

 F.R.G.S. Vol. I. The Mauritius and its Dependencies. London : Smith, Elder, 

 & Co., 65, Cornhil), 1846. 



