30 



A CATALOGUE, AND REMARKS ON THE MEDICINAL AND 

 POISONOUS PLANTS, FOUND PRINCIPALLY IN THE NEIGH- 

 BOURHOOD OP YORK. 



Of the general divisions of the science of Botany, few are more interesting, 

 none certainly more useful, than that which treats of the properties, medical and 

 culinary, of the varied and enchanting products of Flora ; affording, as they do, 

 some of the most common necessaries of life, as well as those agents which, under 

 the hand of the chemist and pharmacopolist, form an important feature in the 

 present Materia Medica. • 



In speaking, then, of the advantages attending the study of Medical Botany, it 

 will scarcely be necessary to remind the readers of the Naturalist, that, to use the 

 language of Professor Henslow, " the old and by-gone sneer of cui bono, by 

 which the naturalist was formerly taunted, now offers no serious impediment in 

 the way of those who are willing to inquire for themselves ;" and now that so 

 many opportunities are afforded by the publication of such works as those of 

 Woodville, and the more modern ones of Stephenson and Churchill, there 

 can only be wanting an interest in it, to render this subject, to a certain degree 

 at least, universally regarded by the lovers of Botany. 



With respect to the locality which is the subject of this communication, it may 

 be remarked, that few counties possess more charms for the admirers of Nature, 

 than Yorkshire ; and this pre-eminence may perhaps be attributed, not so much 

 to its situation and extent, as to the diversified nature of its surface and soil ; em- 

 bracing, as it does, such wild and romantic scenery, surpassed perhaps only by 

 the Highlands of Scotland, together with extensive plains of rich pasture-land 

 and limestone tracts, and the varied appearances presented by the coal and other 

 formations, together with sand and marsh districts ; the whole bounded on one 

 side by the sea — the German Ocean. With such advantages, it may seem remark- 

 able, that no complete and exclusively Local Catalogue has yet appeared of 

 its botanical treasures ; this deficiency will, however, soon be supplied, a work 

 being in prospectu by an able and distinguished practical botanist,* who is in 

 every respect calculated to fulfil satisfactorily his important task. But until 

 this is accomplished, it is thought that a catalogue, with a few remarks on the 

 medical and poisonous plants found principally in the neighbourhood of York, may 

 not be altogether devoid of interest even to the general reader. 



The Plants are arranged according to the Linnaean system, as at once the 

 plainest and most generally understood ; and their number is regulated with 

 regard to the commoner herbs by Stephenson and Churchill's work ; many 

 formerly employed and recorded in the days of Gerarde, and even Woodville, 



• Mr. Batnes, sub-curator of the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 



