134 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



these suppositions are liable to great objections, as was indeed 

 noticed by Plukenet (J//«. 144.), although in writing that Com- 

 mentary I did not attend sufHciently to what he said, and con- 

 founded together two of his plants, which, being placed next 

 each other, I took for one, — an error which I beg leave now to 

 correct. Plukenet mentions an affinity between the Katoii AIou 

 and his Ficus arbor Americana, Arbuti foUis non serrât a, fructu 

 Pisi magnitudine, funkulis e ramis ad terram dcmissis proliféra 

 {P/ij/f- t. 178. /'. 4.), now called Ficiis pednnculata (JVilld. Sp. PL 

 iv. 1 138.) ; but he says expressly, that Commeline erred in con- 

 sidering; the Katou Alou as the Ficas Indica ; and that the Katou 

 Alou could not be the American plant which he described, because 

 its fruit is much larger and its leaves hairy beneath ; while the 

 fruit of the American species being like Pease, and its leaves 

 being smooth, it has a greater affinity to the Tsjukcia of Rheede. 

 In fact, this American tree is the Ficus laurifolia of M. Lamarck 

 {Enc. Meth. ii. 495.), and perhaps the Ficus venosa of ^Villdenow 

 {Sp. PI. iv. 1136.); while the Tsjakela is the Ficus venosa of the 

 Hortus Kewensis (first edition, iii. 451.), now called F'icus infec- 

 toi'ia. The Peralu, indeed, which I agree with Dr. Roxburgh in 

 thinking to be the true Ficus Indica, Plukenet referred, but with 

 doubt, to another American plant, his Ficus Americana, latiori 

 folio venoso t.r Curacoa {Aim. 144 ; P/ti/f. t. 178. /'. 1 .), which was 

 then cultivated in the Royal Garden at Hampton-Court; and 

 this in all probability is the tree which Linnœus, omitting the 

 cautious doubt of Plukenet, called the Ficus Benghalensis, the 

 barbarous name of which I complained. The figure of Plukenet 

 {Pln/t. t. 178./. 1.) has no doubt a considerable resemblance to 

 the Peralu ; but the différence of the countries where they grow 

 is so great, that much reliance cannot be placed on figures that 

 represent neither flower nor fruit. The figure, besides, of Plu- 

 kenet resembles fully as much the Katou Alou as the Peralu; 



but 



