84 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



but this culture has wonderfully improved the fruit ; so that from 

 being useless, as in the Katou Indel, it has become one of the 

 most valuable vegetable productions. 



Linnœus {tl. Zei/l. 390.) however entirely adopted the opinion 

 of Burman, and supposed the Lid/ Palm to be the same with 

 that which produces dates, and to be so common in India that 

 it had communicated its name to the country. This opinion, 

 however, could only be adopted on the supposition that the Katou 

 Indel is the Iiidi : but the whole hypothesis seems groundless ; 

 for in the dialects of the North of India the Katou Indel is called 

 Khajur in the vulgar, and Kharjuri in the sacred dialect {Ka- 

 sourl of the Brahmans of ISIalabar) ; and it was no doubt from 

 some circumstance attending the North of India that the West- 

 ern nations gave this name to the country. The Katou Indel, 

 however, was considered by Linntx;us as quite distinct from the 

 Date-palm {Pliccnlr dactjjlifera), and in the Flora Zeylanica, 397- 

 was called I'aga ; but when he published the Species Flantarum^ 

 he changed this name to Elate aylvestris (Burm. Fl. Ind. 241.), 

 considering it, on very slight and insufficient grounds, as the 

 Elate arbor of the Romans, which was a tree used in preparing 

 ointments, as Pliny mentions (Nat. Hist. I. xii. c. 2S.), " quam 

 alii Elatam vocant, nos Abietem, alii Palmam, alii Spathen. 

 Laudatin- Ilammoniaca maxime, mox iEgyptia, dein Syriaca, 

 duntaxatin locis sitientibus odorata, pingui lachryma, qua? in un- 

 guenta additur ad domandum oleum." The reason, probably, 

 why Pliny calls it Abies is, that EXani was the Greek name for the 

 Latin Abies : but there is no reason to suppose that this grows 

 either in Egypt or in the Oasis of Amnion. Linnœus was there- 

 fore no doubt justifiable in rejecting this supposition of Pliny : 

 but when he adopted the term Pahna, used also as synonymous 

 with Elate in Pliny, he should have considered that this was a 

 generic term ; and before he confounded the Elate with the 



Katoxi 



