NO. 42.— 1891.] SINHALESE PLANT LORE 



113 



A CONTRIBUTION TO SINHALESE PLANT LORE. 



o 



In dealing with the subject of Sinhalese Plant Lore, I shall 

 attempt in this Paper to collect together some of the stories 

 and traditions current in different parts of the Island among 

 the Sinhalese relating to the members of the vegetable 

 kingdom. 



I. — The Principles of the Sinhalese naming 

 of Plants. 



The Sinhalese names which are applied to different species 

 of the vegetable kingdom are connected more or less with 

 certain ideas which are prevalent about the individual 

 species. Their origin, habit, locality, nature, description, 

 form, and properties are one and all more or less expressed 

 in these names, as will be seen in the sequel. 



Origin, 



Certain terminations or prefixes in the names of plants 

 point out to a great extent their origin, whether they are indi- 

 genous or recent introductions. For example, we have the 

 prefixes, rata, "foreign," and me-rata, "country," before the 

 names of a large number of plants : as Rata-del (Artocarpus 

 incisa), Me-rata-del {A. nobilis). 



Instead of me-rata the term gam is also frequently used : 

 as Gam-del. 



But when either the term rata or me-rata is used to denote 

 a species when it is exotic or otherwise, the converse prefix in 

 the opposite plant is optionally omitted : as Rata-lunu (Bom- 

 bay onion), Allium cepa and Lunu (onion), Allium, Miris 

 (chillies), and Me-rata-miris (pepper). Again, the term 

 me-rata or gam does not usually occur when there is no exotic 

 species in existence which is similar in character to a native 

 one : as Kaluwara (ebony), Diospyros ebenuni; Dan, Eugenia, 

 jambolana. In like manner the prefix rata is rarely used 

 when there is no indigenous species resembling the one intro- 



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