Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/412

 382 kind, as Lobelia Columneæ, meaning Columneæ formis. We may allow a few such, already established, to remain, but no judicious author will imitate them.

Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name to some historical fact belonging to the plant or to the person whose name it bears, as Linnæa borealis from the great botanist of the north; Murræa exotica after one of his favourite pupils, a foreigner; Browallia demissa and elata, from a botanist of humble origin and character, who afterwards became a lofty bishop, and in whose work upon water I find the following quotation from Seneca in the hand-writing of Linnæus: "Many might attain wisdom, if they did not suppose they had already reached it." In like manner Buffonia tenuifolia is well known to be a satire on the slender botanical pretensions of the great French zoologist, as the Hillia parasitica of Jacquin, though perhaps not meant, is an equally just one upon our pompous Sir John Hill. I mean not to approve of such satires. They stain the purity of our lovely science. If a botanist does not deserve commemoration, let him sink peaceably