496 Notes on Indian Botany. 



Few are the honors Science has to confer on her votaries ; 

 the principal, indeed the only one being the perpetuation in 

 her annals of their names in connexion with the subjects 

 of their investigations, and that, when well merited should 

 not be lightly set aside. In the present instance,. I conceive 

 it has been set aside on most insufficient grounds, and there- 

 fore with the greatest respect and deference for the truly 

 great and illustrious man who first, I believe, in an unguarded 

 moment committed the error, (and whose memory I revere as 

 being one of the most eminent benefactors of the science of 

 Botany) as well as for the other celebrated Botanists who, by 

 unthinkingly following his footsteps, have confirmed, in place 

 of correcting his oversight — I take the liberty of thus pointed- 

 ly directing attention to the erroneous division, in the hope 

 of preventing its becoming a precedent that might lead to 

 the perpetration of unintentional injustice to deserving in- 

 dividuals, similar to that which has been unreflectingly in- 

 flicted on the meritorious Mr. Jack. 



The generic character given by Jack is too brief for this 

 variable genus, but it was taken from two species only. 

 Blume's, derived from the study of 16 species, is more 

 comprehensive, and indeed leaves but little room for im- 

 provement, except that he has not noticed the ovary or 

 its contents, nor the structure of the seed and direction of 

 the embryo, which are imperfections of some moment. 

 His character has, under the name of Mephitidia, been adopt- 

 ed by De Candolle, with a few unimportant verbal alterations. 

 In 1834, Mr. Arnot gave under Lantia a fuller, and upon 

 the whole, more perfect character than either of the preced- 

 ing, and except that it was necessarily limited to a single 

 species, {Lantia venulosa, Lasianthus venulosus,) the only one 

 then known to us, would in all essential points have left 

 nothing further to be desired. 



From the date of De Candolle's Prodromus, no one seems 

 to have made any direct additions to the genus. Under the 



