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tanical language, and in Arabic, but even his arrogance, which he carries extra flammantia monia mundi.

Keir's paper on diftilling I never faw in print, though I must have heard it read by our fecretary; but as the worthy author of it is in London, where you will have probably met him, he will fatisfy you on the fubject.

The madhuca is, beyond a doubt, the baffia; but I can fafely affert, that not one of fifty bloffoms which I have examined, had 16 filaments, 8 above the throat, and 8 within the tube. That Koenig, whom I knew to be very accurate, had feen fuch a character, I doubt not, but he fhould not have fet it down as conftant. I frequently saw 26 and 28 filaments, fometimes 12, and the average was about 20 or 22. By the way, my excellent friend, you will do us capital fervice, either by printing Koenig's manuscripts, or by fending us a copy of them; and we will fend you in return, not only the correct Sanfcrit names, but the plants themselves, at leaft the feeds,

if

you can prevail on any captain to take care of them.

*

*

That the poem of Calidas entertained you, gives me great pleasure, but it diverts me extremely to hear from others, that the authenticity of the poem is doubted in England; but I am not sure that my own errors of inattention may not have occafioned mistakes. The use of the pollen in flowers is, I believe, well known to the Brahmans; but I am not fure, that I have not added the epithet prolific, to diftinguish it from common duft, which would have been the exact verfion of renu. The blue nymphæa, which I have found reasons for believing the lotus of Egypt, is a native of Upper India; here we have only the white and rofe-coloured.

botanical word, but

the filaments for the

Filament is not used as a

merely as a thread, and

bracelet are drawn from

the stalk of the nymphæa. The hart properly fo called, may not be a native of Bengal; but Calidas lived at Ugein, and lays his scene near the northern mountains; all the rest is clear: bears and boars, and all wild beafts have been hunted

here immemorially. The cocila, fings charmingly here in the fpring; Polier will shew you drawings of the male and female, but will perhaps call it co-il: the ftory of its eggs always ftruck me as very remarkable. The amra is mangifera; the mellica, I believe, nyctanthes zambak; the madhavi creeper, banisteria. The enfa, I cannot fee in bloffom. The fwifha is mimofa odoratiffima, the pippála, ficus religiofa. If I recollect lacfba, it is not a plant, but lac. Vana dofini is a Sanfcrit epithet of the banifteria. As to nard, I know not what to fay; if the Greeks meant only fragrant grafs, we have nards in abundance, acorus, fchoenus, andropogon, cyperus, &c. But I have no evidence that they meant any fuch thing. On Arrian, or rather on Ariftobulus, we cannot safely rely, as they place cinnamon in Arabia, and myrth in Perfia. Should any travelling botanist find the fpecies of andropogon, mentioned by Dr. Blane in the plains of Gedrofia, it would be fome evidence, but would at the fame time prove that it was not the Indian nard, which never was fupposed to grow

in Perfia. As at prefent advised, I believe the Indian nard of the ancients to have been a valerian, at least the nard of Ptolemy, which is brought from the very country, mentioned by him as famed for fpikenard.

gone

And now, my dear Sir Jofeph, I have through both your letters: I am, for many good reasons, a bad correfpondent, but principally because the discharge of my public duties leaves me no more time than is fufficient for neceffary refreshments and relaxation.

The last twenty years of my life I fhall spend, I truft, in a studious retreat; and if you know of a pleasant country house to be disposed of in your part of Middlesex, with pafture-ground for my cattle, and gardenground enough for my amufement, have the goodness to inform me of it. I fhall be hap

Py in being your neighbour, and, though I write little now, will talk then as much as you please.

I believe I fhall fend a box of ineftimable manufcripts, Sanfcrit and Arabic, to your friendly care. If I return to England, you will

reftore them to me; if I die in my voyage to China, or my journey through Perfia, you will dispose of them as you pleafe*. Wherever I may die, I fhall be, while I live, my dear Sir, &c.

Sir William Jones to Warren Haftings, Efq. Crishna-nagur, O. 20, 1791

MY DEAR SIR,

Before you can receive this, you will, I doubt not, have obtained a complete triumph over your perfecutors; and your character will have rifen, not brighter indeed, but more confpicuously bright, from the furnace of their perfecution. Happy fhould I be if I could congratulate you in person on your victory; but though I have a fortune in England, which might fatisfy a man of letters, yet I have not enough to establish that absolute independence which has been the chief end and aim of my

*The MSS. here alluded to, after the demise of Sir William Jones, were presented, together with another large collection of Eastern MSS. to the Royal Society, by Lady Jones. A catalogue, compiled by Mr. Wilkins, is inserted in the 13th volume of Sir William Jones's works.

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