A Catalogue of the most valuable Books in the Perfian Language The History of the Persian Language POESEOS ASIATICE COMMENTARIORUM LIBRI SEX, CUM APPENDICE; SUBJICITUR LIMON, SEU MISCELLANE- ORUM LIBER. Proœmium THE DESIGN 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 fmalleft force, thus we, who have ample space for our inquiries, really want time for the pursuit of them. "Give me a place to stand on, "faid the great mathematician, and I will move the whole earth :" Give us time, we may fay, for our investigations, and we will transfer to Europe all the fciences, arts, and literature of Afia. "Not to have despaired," 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 occafionally find more leifure, than it will ever, at least in this country, be my lot to enjoy, I take the liberty to propofe 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 forefts 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 Dravyábðidhána, or Dictionary of Natural Productions, includes, I believe, a far greater number; the properties of which are distinctly 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 constant fluctuation, and will not, perhaps, be understood a century hence by the inhabitants of these Indian territories, whom future botanists 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 seem to me not only more elegant, but far properer, defignations of an Indian and an Arabian plant, than Michelia and Lawfonia; nor can I fee without pain, that the great Swedish botanist confidered it as the Supreme and only reward of labour in this part of natural history, to preserve a name by hanging it on a blossom, and that he declared this mode of promoting and adorning botany, worthy of being continued with holy reverence, though fo high an honour, he fays, 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 s followers; no, not even of faints: his lift of an hundred and fifty such names clearly fhows, that his excellent works are the true bafis of his just celebrity, which would have been feebly supported by the stalk of the Linnæa. From what proper name the Plantain is called Mufa, I do not know; but it seems to be the Dutch pronunciation of the Arabick word for that vegetable, and ought not, therefore, to have appeared in his lift, though, in my opinion, it is the only rational name in the mufter-roll. As to the system of LINNEUS, it is the fyftem of Nature, fubordinate indeed to the beautiful arrangement of natural orders, of which he has given a rough sketch, and which may hereafter, perhaps, be completed: but the diftribution of vegetables into claffes, according to the number, length, and pofition of the ftamens and pistils, and of those claffes into kinds and Species, according to certain marks of discrimination, will ever be found the clearest and most convenient of methods, and should therefore be studiously observed in the work, which I now fuggeft; but I must be forgiven, if I propose to reject the Linnean appellations of the twenty-four claffes, because, although they appear to be Greek, (and, if they really were fo, that alone might be thought a fufficient objection) yet in truth they are not Greek, nor even formed by analogy to the language of Grecians; for Polygamos, Monandros, and the rest of that form, are both masculine and feminine; Polyandria, in the abstract, never occurs, and Polyandrion means a publick cemitery; diacia and diacus are not found in books of authority; nor, if they were, would they be derived from dis, but from dia, which would include the triacia; let me add, that the twelfth and thirteenth classes are ill distinguished by their appellations, independently of other exceptions to them, fince the real diftinction between them confists not so much in the number of their stamens, as in the place, where they are inferted; and that the fourteenth and fifteenth are not more accurately discriminated by two words formed in defiance of grammatical analogy, fince there are but two powers, or two diverfities of length, in each of thofe claffes. Calycopolyandros Calycopolyandros might, perhaps, not inaccurately denote a flower of the twelfth class; but fuch a compound would ftill favour of barbarism or pedantry; and the best way to amend fuch a system of words is to efface it, and fupply its place by a more fimple nomenclature, which may easily be found. Numerals may be used for the eleven first claffes, the former of two numbers being always appropriated to the flamens, and the latter, to the pistils: fhort phrases, as, on the calyx or calice, in the receptacle, two long, four long, from one bafe, from two, or many, bases, with anthers connected, on the pistils, in two flowers, in two distinct plants, mixed, concealed, or the like, will answer every purpose of discrimination; but I do not offer this as a perfect substitute for the words, which I condemn. The allegory of fexes and nuptials, even if it were complete, ought, I think, to be discarded, as unbecoming the gravity of men, who, while they fearch for truth, have no bufinefs to inflame. their imaginations; and, while they profess to give descriptions, have nothing to do with metaphors: few paffages in Aloifia, the most impudent book ever composed by man, are more wantonly indecent than the hundred-forty-fixth number of the Botanical Philofophy, and the broad comment of its grave author, who dares, like OCTAVIUS in his epigram, to speak with Roman fimplicity; nor can the Linnean description of the Arum, and many other plants, be read in English without exciting ideas, which the occafion does not require. Hence it is, that' no well-born and well-educated woman can be advised to amufe herfelf with botany, as it is now explained, though a more elegant and delightful ftudy, or one more likely to affift and embellish other female accomplishments, could not poffibly be recommended. When the Sanferit names of the Indian plants have been correctly written in a large paper-book, one page being appropriated to each, the fresh plants themfelves, procured in their refpective feafons, must be concifely, but accurately, claffed and defcribed; after which their feveral ufes |