INTRODUCTION'. VU 



r m 



is the most learned, accurate and useful, while 

 Barton's ha^ often the btst figures. 



It is to be regretted that these authors by 



an of Woodville's 



follow 



Medical Botany have lessened their utility 



public circulation. 



43. Some years before the above publications, 

 a herbalist or spurious Botanist, Samuel Henry, 

 printed in New York, 181 Jr, a Medical Herbal, 

 comprising in one octavo volume of five dollars, 

 about one hundred sixty medical plants, with 

 small fictitious figures. 



43. This Work is merely mentioned here to 

 warn against it. It is a worthless book, with 

 incorrect names, wrong descriptions^ erroneous 

 indications, *and figures mostly fictitious or 

 misapplied. It is of no medical nor botanical 

 account; yet it contains some of the Empirical 

 concealed knowledge, available in a few in- 

 stances. 



44. Works of general utility ought to be ac- 

 curate, complete, portable and cheap. Such 

 alone can spread the required correct know- 

 ledge, and suit every class of readers. 



45. The popular knowledge of the natural 

 sciences has been prevented in the United 

 States, by the first works published on them, 

 having followed the model of the splendid Eu- 

 ropean publications intended for the wealthy or 

 public libraries. 



46. It is time that we should return to the 

 pristine Linnean simplicity, and by the addition 

 of cheap but correct figures of objects, engraved 

 on copper, zinc, pewter, stone or wood, speak 

 to the eyes as well as the mind. 



