Well, you can use search ... but that won't be very accurate. To select by name you'd have to cycle through all data:
var arr = [];
$.each(instance._model.data, function (i, v) {
if($.inArray(v.text, ['array','of','titles'])) { arr.push(i); }
});
instance.select_node(arr);
Give this a try - not tested but it should work.
Best regards,
Ivan