136 Dr. Francis Habiilïon's Commentary 



which we shall soon have occasion to return. When, however, 

 Linna?us published the second edition of his Species Plantarum, 

 he added many other synonjana, and among these an American 

 plant described by Catesby ; from which alone, as M. Lamarck 

 justly observes {Enc. Met/i. ii. 495.), he seems to have drawn his 

 specific character, this probably having been the only one of the 

 plants quoted that he had actually seen. 



M. Lamarck, therefore, returns to the first supposition of Lin- 

 nceus, and gives the Kntou Alou as the true Ficus Indien, refer- 

 ring to it all the synonyma of old botanists, who meant to describe 

 the tree of Pliny and Theophrastus ;— but what probability is 

 there that a tree growing neglected in the obscure parts of the 

 South, should be that noticed by the Greeks and Romans in 

 the North of India, while in every part the Peralii is cultivated 

 with a religious veneration ? The very Malabar names show 

 the différence : Alu or Alou being the generic name. Per signi- 

 fies Tree, as if we should say Arbor Alou dicta by way of excel- 

 lence ; while Kafou implies this species of Alou to be the si/lves- 

 tris, to use the language of the older botanists. In the same 

 manner the Peralu by the Brahmans of Malabar is called J ad- 

 hou (from Vata of the Sanscrit) by waj^ of excellence ; while the 

 Katou Alou is distinguished by a specific term {Doulo) prefixed, 

 to mark its not being the true prototj^pe of the genus. I approve 

 therefore entirely of the change made by Willdenow, who, 

 although he knew nothing of the Katou Alou except from the 

 Hortus Mahd)aricus, calls it Ficus citrifolia {Sp. PI. iv. 1137.). 



Dr. Roxburgh, so far as we can judge from the Hortus Ben- 

 galensis, would not seem to have seen any tree which he referred 

 to the Ficus citrifolia or Katou Alou : but in the South of India 

 I found a tree which I should have had no doubt was the same, 

 had I ever seen roots descending from its branches ; but this I 

 never did, and the natives assured me that it does not possess 



this 



