44 PLOKA INDICA. 



lication, except where there are obvious reasons for the con- 

 trary^ which we shall explicitly state. 



Lastly, we find it necessary to say a few words regarding 

 the employment of the native appellations of plants as specific 

 names. These are in general very uncouth, and disagreeable 

 to those who are unfamiliar with Indian languages ; moreover, 

 they are quite unpronounceable without special education in 

 the mode of spelling. The only advantage which they are 

 supposed to possess, is the identification of useful species by 

 their means. This we believe to be an entire delusion, except 

 in a very few exceptional cases, where the native names are so 

 extensively known that they ought to be learned as a part of 

 a language, and not sought for in the catalogues of scientific 

 botany. In general they are mere local appellations, confined 

 to a single dialect of one of the many languages of quite dif- 

 ferent roots spoken over the area the plant inhabits. Added 

 to this, they are, in by far the greater number of cases, 

 founded on error ; and it becomes necessary for the systema- 

 tist to explain, that the name which, by the laws of priority, 

 is irretrievably placed upon the records of the science, has 

 been misapplied, and ought to be borne by another, and fre- 

 quently very different plant, or by none at all. We have 

 therefore retained native names with great unwillingness, and 

 have not hesitated to change them wherever it has appeared 

 practicable without violation of established rules. 



In conclusion, we may state that in all these points we have 

 only followed the example set by Wight and Arnott in their 

 ' Prodromus Moraj Peninsulse Orientalis,' a work which is, as 

 regards Indian Botany, unique ; and indeed there are few sys- 

 tematic works in our own or any other language, that equal it 

 for accuracy, truly philosophical views of the limits of genera, 

 species, and varieties, and scrupulous attention to the details 

 of nomenclature, synonymy, etc. 



oellent) laid doxra by the British Association for nomenclature in Natural His- 

 tory, we have, in common with every botanist who has tried to do so, been 

 obhged to set them aside in many instances. 



