A Catalogue of the most valuable Books in the Perfian Language The History of the Persian Language CAPUT V.-De Imaginibus Poeticis CAPUT VIII.-De reliquis Figuris POESEOS ASIATICE COMMENTARIORUM LIBRI SEX, CUM CAPUT I.-Afiaticos ferè omnes Poeticæ impenfiùs effe deditos PAGE 153 154 162 168 333 - - 347 362 - - - 193 210 212 ib. 214 215 ib. 217 230 - 247 263 303 VOL. II. b THE DESIGN 66 OF A TREATISE ON THE PLANTS OF INDIA. BY THE PRESIDENT. THE greatest, if not the only, obftacle to the progress of knowledge in these provinces, except in those branches of it, which belong immediately to our several profeffions, is our want of leisure for general researches; and, as ARCHIMEDES, who was happily master of his time, had not space enough to move the greatest weight with the finallest force, thus we, who have ample space for our inquiries, really want time for the pursuit of them. "Give me a place to ftand on, "faid the great mathematician, and I will move the whole earth:” Give us time, we may say, for our investigations, and we will transfer to Europe all the Sciences, arts, and literature of Afia. "Not to have defpaired," however, was thought a degree of merit in the Roman general, even though he was defeated; and, having fome hope, that others VOL. II. B may may occasionally find more leifure, than it will ever, at least in this country, be my lot to enjoy, I take the liberty to propose a work, from which very curious information, and poffibly very folid advantage, may be derived. Some hundreds of plants, which are yet imperfectly known to European botanifts, and with the virtues of which they are wholly unacquainted, grow wild on the plains and in the forests of India: the Amarcòfh, an excellent vocabulary of the Sanferit language, contains in one chapter the names of about three hundred medicinal vegetables; the Médinì may comprize many more; and the Dravyábhidhána, or Dictionary of Natural Productions, includes, I believe, a far greater number; the properties of which are diftinctly related in medical tracts of approved authority. Now the first step, in compiling a treatise on the plants of India, fhould be to write their true names in Roman letters, according to the most accurate orthography, and in Sanferit preferably to any vulgar dialect; because a learned language is fixed in books, while popular idioms are in conftant fluctuation, and will not, perhaps, be understood a century hence by the inhabitants of these Indian territories, whom future botanifts may confult on the common appellations of trees and flowers: the childish denominations of plants from the persons, who first described them, ought wholly to be rejected; for Champaca and Hinna feem to me not only more elegant, but far properer, defignations of an Indian and an Arabian plant, than Michelia and Lawsonia; nor can I fee without pain, that the great Swedish botanist confidered it as the fupreme and only reward of labour in this part of natural history, to preserve a name by hanging it on a bloffom, and that he declared this mode of promoting and adorning botany, worthy of being continued with holy reverence, though so high an honour, he says, ought to be conferred with chafte referve, and not prostituted for the purpose of conciliating the good will, or eternizing the memory, of any but his chofen followers; |