Xlvi INTRODUCTION. 



Much trouble will be saved to the experimenting physician 

 by the help of the country names of plants. Modern India 



appellatives remain understood, a travelling physician who should wish to 

 procure an Arabian or Indian plant, and without asking for it by its learned 

 or vulgar name, should hunt for it in the woods by its botanical character, 

 would resemble a geographer, who, desiring to inquire by name for a street or 

 a town, but waits with his tables and instruments for a proper occasion to 

 determine its longitude and latitude." ( " Botanical Observations on select 

 Indian Plants." Sir Wm. Jones' Works, Vol. II P. 47, London, 1799.) 



In Sanskrit every plant bears several synonyms which may facilitate in 

 tracing the history and identification of the plant. 



"Every single word in Sanskrit," writes Professor Sir Monier Williams, 

 "is referred to dhatu or root which is also a name for any constituent element- 

 ary substance, whether of rocks or living organisms. In short, when we follow 

 out their grammatical system in all the details of its curious subtleties and 

 technicalities, we seem to be engaged, like a geologist, in splitting solid 

 substances, or like a chemist, in some elaborate process of analysis." (Preface 

 to Sanskrit Dictionary p. vi.) 



These Sanskrit synonyms to be of any use, should be accompanied with a 

 literal translation into English. 



Mr. C. B. Clarke does not think that the vernacular names of plants help 

 much in identifying them. For he says : 



" I have observed that the eagerness to get native or vulgar names for 

 plants is directly proportioned to the ignorance of the enquirer, those who 

 know nothing about the plants and who are unable to discriminate them under 

 any names being always loud in their call for native or local names." 



Again, " as to the grand Sanskrit names, they are of still less value than 

 the vulgar ones, being founded on less actual observation, with the object of 

 enriching the language." (Preface by Mr. Clarke to his Edition of Roxburgh's 

 Flora Indica, p. ii, Calcutta, 1874.) 



I think these remarks of Mr. Clarke are not quite justifiable, and they are 

 not shared in by other eminent botanists. For instance, Sir David Brandis, 

 who has been called the " Father of Indian Forestry," says regarding the 

 vernacular names of plants, : — 



" The critical examination of the vernacular names of the different Indian 

 languages, and their derivation from the Sanskrit or other roots, will be found 

 a most interesting and important study. * * * * The forester should 

 not despise vernacular names, for in many instances they have a fixity which 

 systematic names do not yet possess. We all know the ever green Khirni, 

 and there can be no mistake about it ; but botanists are not yet agreed whe- 

 ther the tree shall be called Mimusops indica, Jiexandra or Kauki. Kamela 

 or Kamila is a well-known small tree, its systematic name among Indian 

 botanists, however, which for more than half a century was Rottleria tinctoria 

 has now and properly been changed into Mallotus philippinensis. Again, 

 there can be no doubt as to the tree designated by kao, lean. Although some 

 botanists call it olea europea, others olea cuspidatu, and others olea fermginea. 

 * * * These changes of systematic names are not arbitrary— as a rule, 

 they are dictated by the progress of scientific research ; but they are apt 

 to discourage the student, and on that account, also, vernacular names merit 

 attention." (Forest Flora of N. W. India, Preface: pp. xi and xii, London, 

 1874.) 



When the Pharmacopoeia of India was issued, it was considered a great 

 defect in the work that it had not given the vernacular names of the plants. 

 In reviewing the work, a writer said : — 



" Many of the non-officinal remedies, the introduction of which to regular 

 practice is avowedly one of the objects of the publication of this Pharmaco- 

 poeia, are dismissed without a single vernacular name for the in being given. 

 The recommendation, for example, of the committee, that Hymenodictijon 



