NOTE, 
At fol. 854, we took an opportunity of censuring what appeared to our- 
selves and others an improper change in the nomenclature of a plant well 
known in gardens. In the last number of the Botanical Magazine, the al- 
teration to which we alluded, is explained by stating, that there is sufficient 
evidence in Mr. Lambert’s Herbarium, and the second volume (unpublished) 
of the Flora Indica, that the name supposed by us to belong to the plant in 
question, has, in fact, been applied to a different species by Dr. Wallich. 
This assertion being made from the personal observation of our friend Dr. — 
Sims, we cannot hesitate to place full reliance upon its accuracy. But if it 
had depended upon the authority of a work just published, called ‘* Prodro- 
mus Flora Nepalensis,” we would have ‘plainly said, that the general cha- 
racter of that work is not suchas to entitle the author of it to our credence. 
Under the pretence of publishing the collection of Nepalese plants, formed 
by Dr. Hamilton during his residence in India, the writer of this book has 
had the extraordinary assurance to incorporate with them a considerable 
proportion of the plants collected in Nepal by Dr. Wallich, by him confided 
~ to individuals in this country, and at this morhent publishing under that dis- 
tinguished and indefatigable Botanist’s own direction in India. What object 
can have been expected by this production we are unable to understand. 
The act cannot be justified upon the ground of the necessity of a work upon 
Nepalese plants; firstly, because, as we have already said, such a pub- 
lication is at this moment in activity under the proper authorities in India ; 
and, secondly, because such supposed necessity is not to be supplied by an 
imperfect account of something like a fourth or fifth part of the vege- 
tation of the country.. We do not suppose the Honourable Court of Direc- 
tors of the East India Company, to whom this production is dedicated, 
will feel much flattered by being made the patrons of a work which is not 
only thus injurious to their servants, but written in so strange a Language, 
that we can scarcely guess at its name, unless, indeed, it be a specimen of 
some new kind of Latin, which may be written “ with great facility, after 
three lessons of an hour each,” without the incumbrance of previous educa- 
tion. ‘That the author of this work should have had the vanity to suppose 
himself more competent to form an opinion upon Indian plants than Indian 
Botanists themselves, is what we, at least, never doubted; but that men of 
sense and character should be found in this country ready to countenance 
such a feeling, is most incredible and ridiculous. 
Flow far Dr. Hamilton is complimented by the manner in which his plants 
have been published; what opinion that gentleman or others may form of the 
talent and modesty with which they have been arranged ; why the numerous 
species from Dr. Hamilton himself, already extremely well published by the 
learned President of the Linnean Society, should, with the exception of 
the few in Exotic Botany, never have been referred to; upon what pretence 
the published names of Dr. Wallich, De Candolle, and others, should have 
been, in numerous instances, altered; and why, of the Nepalese plants in 
the Herbaria in London, few besides species of the most obvious character 
and easy determination should have been selected for the display of Mr. 
David Don’s learning and abilities; these are all points well deserving the 
consideration of Botanists. 
