1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 185 



A very remarkable Alga, very much resembling Grenacantha ori- 

 entalis, K ii t z i n g, a species which has as yet only been found in 

 a well in Hebron, Palestine. It differs, however, by the not jointed 

 corticate stem and branches, only the fine prickles are jointed as 

 in Centroceras, and are visible already with the aid of a common 

 lens. 



700. Leptotlirix lamellosa, Kg. — Oscillatoria labyrinthiformis, 

 A g.— In the hot waters of the Tjikundal on the Gede, at about 

 7000 feet elevation. It was already discovered by Yandelli 

 in the time of L i n n e, in the hot water springs of Abamo near 

 Padua. 



1207. Phycoseris reticulata, K g. ; Singapore ; (very frequent in 

 the Indian ocean and in the Eed Sea). 



"VII- — Contributions towards Vernacular Lexicography, No. 1. — By 

 Pratapachandra Ghosh a, B. A. (Abstract.) 

 Lexicography as a science is quite unknown in the literature of 

 Bengal. Dictionaries, in the true sense of the term, are not to 

 be found in Bengali. The few that pass under that ostensible 

 name, partake more of the nature of Vocabularies than of Diction- 

 aries. Thej' appear to have been compiled without any reference to 

 the etjnnology or orthography of vernacular words. And as 

 long as a real boundary line of the language is not marked, such 

 works cannot be anything else than Sanscrita Dictionaries in Ben- 

 gali characters. Some compilers have, however, augmented the 

 size of their work by interpolating all the modifications and distor- 

 tions of Sanscrita words to which corrupt pronunciation of the illiter- 

 ate, and erroneous spelling of the negligent, have given rise. 



In this, the first of a series of papers, it is attempted to lay the 

 foundation on a sound principle, for a better and complete Diction- 

 ary of the Bengali language- Etymology of several vernacular 

 words and their present application, as distinguished from that of 

 the original Sanscrita words, from which they evidently have been 

 derived, form the subject of this paper. The Bengali language 

 derives more than nineteen-twentieth of the bulk of its words from 

 the Sanscrita, and in many instances the original Sanscrita form has 

 been so fully preserved, that the words of the two languages are, in 



