PREFACE. . V. 



jot abovf. the studies of a raiser of 

 nation fansier. 



When we congider the study of nlants 'as th 



search of remedies for diseases^ we see it in tlie 

 light of one of the most honourable sciences in 

 the world ; in this view, no pains are too great 

 to have been bt^stowed in its acquirement ; and 

 in this intent^ the principal regard ought to be 

 had to ibose of our own growth. The foreign 

 plants brought into our stoves with so much ex- 

 pence^ and kept there with so much pains, mav 

 fill the eye with empty wonder : biit it would 

 be more to the honour of the possessor of them; 

 to have found out the use of one common herb 

 at home, than to have enriched our country with 

 an hundred of the others. Nay, in the eye of rea- 

 son, this ostentatious studj is rather a reproath. 

 Why ghould he, who has not yet informed himself 

 thoroughly of the nature of the meanest herb 

 which grows in the next ditch^ ransack the earth 

 for foreign wonders ? Does he not fall under the 

 same reproach with the generality of those, who 

 travel for their improvement^ while they are igno- 

 rant of all they left at home ; and who are ridicu- 

 lous in their inquiries concerning the laws and 



government of other countries, while they 



questioa 



which regards their own f 



I have said thus much to obviate the censures 

 of those, to whom an inquiry into the virtues of 

 herhs may seem the province of a woman. It is 

 an honour to the sex, that they have put our 

 studies to use : but it would be well, if we had 



derin^* that 



J 



had made our writings more intelligible to 



them. 



The intent of words is to express our meaning 



