Vili PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
of the eager curiosity and attention which our native medicinal 
plants now manifestly excite. Thus much may, it is hoped, with 
propriety be said. And if this work only perform the office of the 
finger-post on the road, which, though it stirs not one inch of the 
way itself, points out the right path to be pursued, it will not have 
been published in vain. Already the attention to this subject may be 
seen, in a late valuable edition of the Edinburgh Dispensatory, by Dr. 
Dyckman, of New York, in which more of our native medicines will 
be found, than have, heretofore, appeared inthe American Dispensato- 
ries. And it is not doubted, that when the national Pharmacopeia, 
now meditated, is given to the world, the Materia Medica of the 
United States will not only be extensively used by our own physi- 
cians, but will be eagerly sought for by those of foreign countries. 
But, our Materia Medica is not the only worthy object of enquiry, to 
the botanist: the Materia Alimentaria of North America, is equally in- 
teresting. From an unfortunate race of human beings now rapidly 
disappearing, by the influence of the combined effects of warfare, 
civilization, and amalgamation with the whites, much valuable infor- 
mation might, in all probability be obtained, on the subject of their ma- 
teria alimentaria.* For among the esculent vegetables of the Indians 
* It is highly probable that among the manuscripts which were left by the late Pro- 
fessor Barton, much interesting information on this subject might be collected. His 
well known inquisitiveness, and his constant habit of recording, in however desultory a 
manner, the facts with which his enquiries made him acquainted, warrant the belief, 
that the public are deprived of some curious and very interesting Knowledge, in conse- 
