230 A TOUR ROUND MT GARDEN. 



They eat beef, mutton, and rice. 



Among the trees and plants which he has seen, he named 

 linden-trees, rose-laurels, camellias, peonies, mallows, and a 

 •nagnolia whose blossoms precede the leaves. As regards this 

 last point, I don't feel a very anxious desire to go to China to 

 see this magnolia, since it came to France to see me long ago, 

 and I have three in my garden ; but, it must be allowed that 

 in China I should hear it called you Ian, whilst here, I call it 

 the precocious magnolia, and the learned designate it, precox. 



Now, see if all this is worth the trouble of going to the 

 antipodes for ! 



Oar savants, since I have met with some, appear to me to 

 be a more singular people than the Chinese; for they do not 

 employ Latin and Greek so much for the purpose of under- 

 standing each other, as to prevent their being understood 

 by other people, or at least the second object seems to be 

 generally attended with more success than the first. 



For a long time I have timidly meditated on putting to the 

 learned a single and modest question, and every time I have 

 been about to risk it, respect and veneration have stopped and 

 intimidated me. 



This is my question : — 



Wherein would it be more criminal to give to French 

 words a Latin and Greek termination, than a French termina- 

 tion to Greek and Latin words 1 What difference does there 

 exist between these two operations ? 



If I obtain from the savants the only possible reasonable 

 answer to these two questions, that is, that one is not more 

 criminal than the other, and that the two operations are 

 perfectly identical, I will ask aocessorily why the learned do 

 not call a cabriolet cabrioletus, un mouton (a sheep) moutonus, 

 and un Mtre (a beech) hetrus? 



Why, instead of saying that a plant is polysperme, do they 

 not say that it is many-seeded i Why is a certain tree desig- 

 nated by them under the surname of microphylle, instead of 

 little-leaf? 



If I am told that little-leaf, many-seeded, cabrioletti, &c., 

 &c., are frightful barbarisms, I will tell them that poly- 

 sperme and microphylle are Greek words to which a French 

 termination has been given, as well as to plusieras semengas a 



