With such a set of specimens, I should have had little difficulty in assigning Botanical names, to probably the whole of Colonel Frith's large collection of woods : and on being supplied with such materials, will not only be happy to lend my aid in enhancing the value of such collections, by determining the Botanical names, but will feel exceedingly obliged to any one who may favour me with such a collection (whether of the trees and useful plants only, or of the plants generally growing in his neighbourhood) duly numbered, for convenience of reference in preparing counter catalogues, and labelled with the native names, as a means of enabling me to augment the usefulness of this publication, by extending the catalogue of such names in connexion with the scientific appellations under which the plants are described in Botanical works.
I avail myself of this opportunity to make a few remarks on the subject of names, regarding which, some curious, not to say unphilosophical, ideas prevail, and on which, at the commencement of a Botanical work, in a great measure addressed to unbotanical readers, it appears above all others desirable that clear ideas should be established, as no other science bears, to the same extent, the reproach of being so over-burthened with hard and learned names. Fine flowering and useful plants being general favourites among people of every tongue, each nation seems desirous, that every known plant (50,000 in number) should have a name in its own language; and no people insist on this privilege more strongly than the English, nor any, with less reason; since they have not English names for many of their own indigenous plants! though the whole English flora scarcely furnishes 1500 flowering species; nor for above a few hundreds (apart from mere translations of Botanical names) for upwards of 20,000 exotics now in cultivation in their stoves and conservatories.
In spite of this paucity of the English language in names of plants, the English people seem to expect Botanists to find English names, I verily believe, for every plant under the sun, and in conversation, such is their horror of even well-sounding and easily pronounced Botanical names; that they will rather adopt any other, however barbarous, unpronounceable or unmeaning, than be guilty of so great a solecism as that of using one; fearful no doubt, of incurring the opprobrious cognomen of a "Blue!" In England, where the plants spoken of are English, and have English names (though even there the same plants often bear very different names in different counties) this is well enough, but when we carry this prediliction for English names out of the country, it becomes ridiculous, for how can a plant probably never before seen by an Englishman, have an English name? As well might a Hindoo expect to find Tamul or Telugoo names in England, as an Englishman, English names of plants in India : but if in the absence of these, we are disposed to content ourselves with native names, we must bear in mind, that in India, as in England, the same plants have different names in different provinces, and not unfrequently the same name is given to a variety of plants, or vice versa, a great variety of names to the same plant, rendering the knowledge of very difficult acquisilion, and when acquired of comparatively little value. Added to these impediments to the acquisition of a correct knowledge of vernacular names of plants, we know that these names, being preserved, not by descriptions and figures which limit them invariably to the same species, but by tradition, are therefore in course of time, through mistakes of persons repeating them, liable to change, by being applied to plants different from those, to which they were originally given, the only way indeed, to account for the wide discrepancies often found in the names given to the same plants by different persons speaking the same language. For these,in my opinion.weighty reasons,I trust I shall not be blamed for seldom introducing native names into the body of this work, and for indulgingthe hope,that those desirous of obtaining a correct knowledge of Indian Plants, will for the future, as much as possible, adopt their Botanical nomenclature. Being at the same time aware, that one, and not the least important, object of Botany is to fix these vascillating vernacular names, and render them useful towards the advancement of science by connecting them with their comparatively stable Botanical ones, I am most desirous of receiving lists, in different native languages, of the plants figured in this work, as well as the collections mentioned above, with a view to the formation of a comprehensive catalogue and index of both.
To prepare a complete catalogue of native and scientific names in any one language, is always a work of great difficulty, but in this country, where so many languages are spoken, requiring for its successful execution, by any one man, a rare combination of talent and acquirement. Such a catalogue has however been already to a great extent, completed in Mr. Piddington's " English Index to the plants of India," a compilation of the highest merit, but yet, strange to say, almost unknown and unheard of in this part of India. To those desirous of knowing what has already been done in this department of Indian Botany, I would strongly recommend this most useful Index, both on account of its actual contents, and as a model, for its own extension. The " Tabular view of thegeneric characters of Roxburghs Flora Indica," by the same author, forms a most suitable companion to the Index ; and one, which I should say ought never to be separated, as a reference to it, will often enable the investigator of native names to ascertain whether the native teacher is giving correct information, by showing whether the plant named, belongs to the genus to which his name refers.
