87 



DESCRIPTION OF 



THE GENUS RAIANIA 



AND ITS SPECIES. 



[The following is the article alluded to at page 65, and 

 is from the pen of Sir J. E. Smith, and will not be con- 

 sidered out of place in these ' Memorials,' as giving an 

 account of the species of the genus of plants which has 

 been dedicated to our great botanist.] 



Baiania in botany, so called in honour of our im- 

 mortal naturalist, John Ray, the most accurate in obser- 

 vation, the most philosophical in contemplation, and the 

 most faithful in description, of all the botanists of his 

 own, or perhaps any other time. Plumier, who estab- 

 lished this genus, finding the name Baia preoccupied by 

 zoologists, contrived to call the plant Jan Baia, which 

 Linnseus turned about into Bajania, still retaining the 

 idea of the christian name combined with the other. 

 But such an idea is ludicrous to English ears, and is 

 happily not in general perceived. We presume to alter 

 the orthography in one letter, writing the word as it is 

 always pronounced, and deducing it regularly from the 

 Latin Baius, by which name the person commemorated 

 is known all over the literary world. (Plum. Gen., 33 

 t. 29. Linn. Gen., 525. Schreb., 692. WiUd. Sp. 

 PL, V. 4, 788. Mart. Mill. Diet., v. 4. Ait. Hort. 

 Kew., V. 5, 391. Jus., 43. Lamarck, Illustr., t. 818. 

 Gsertn., t. 14.) 



