INTRODUCTION. 



IN the following Vocabulary no attempt has been made to 

 reduce the orthography of the native names to any fixed 

 standard ; for to do so would have required, both in the Com- 

 piler and the original collector of the plants, not only a correct 

 knowledge of the different languages, but moreover one of the 

 provincial dialects and of the pronunciation of the spoken lan- 

 guage. How much these vary is well known to those who 

 have paid attention to the subject ; and, after all the attempts 

 of those who have endeavoured to fix a standard, very much 

 must be left which is almost of necessity arbitrary ; for it is only 

 a practised ear, and one aided by a knowledge of native ortho- 

 graphy, which can distinguish between an a, an u, or an o, as in 

 Madar, Mudar ; an Italian i for a ee, as Jitee, Jeetee : and then 

 again, scarcely any two orientalists will use the same English 

 letters to express the same sounds caught by the ear, even 

 where they agree as to the system to be followed, unless they 

 have first written the word in the native character. 



From this difficulty the search for names in Part II. must 

 always be to a certain degree vague and indefinite ; but the 

 smallest knowledge of Botany will correct any error which may 

 take place ; and to aid research as much as possible, repetition 

 has been always preferred to omission, so that the same name, 

 with but a trifling difference, will be often found repeated. 



The innumerable Sanscrit synonymes which are found to 

 some of the common plants in the Flora Indica, (there are 23 to 

 Vangueria and 21 to Solanum Jacquini,) are however omitted, 

 and the principal or first only preserved; because it is not 

 intended to furnish a book of reference for the scholar, (for 

 whom far better sources of information exist,) but a manual for 

 common and every-day use. 



