30 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



nearest the center. Thus the morning glory has a blue or 

 pink border but a white center; the bluet is blue on the 

 margin, white within and yellow in the center. A large 

 number of other examples may be found b}^ anj^one who 

 will look for them among our common blossoms. 



THE EARLY DAYS OF BOTANY. 



BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY. 



IT was in seeking for simples to cure or palliate the 

 wounds of war or ravages of disease ; in groping 

 among the plants ol forest, field or mountain that the 

 earty physicians became acquainted with such crude facts 

 as originalh' constituted botanical science. Toxicology, 

 too, cherished a much too intimate relation to botany 

 and to medicine. A knowledge of poisons often carried 

 with it a great, though perhaps secret, political power. 

 It was sometimes the part of prudence to decline invita- 

 tions to the afternoon teas or evening bancjuets of the 

 olden time. This, however, was not an unmixed evil. 

 The experience gained from the experiments in diplo- 

 macy-, these subtle acts of the ancient bosses, was, it is 

 true, a terrible experience ; the elimination of undesirable 

 citizens or ambitous opponents, \vas a terrible power to 

 exert; still, it served to add to the sum of human know^- 

 ledge. What were found to be deadly- drugs in large doses, 

 might, in small ones, prove to be potential cures. 



The so-called herbalists tried almost every plant as a 

 remedy. It was nothing to experiment upon a slave ; 

 vivisection was not confined to guinea-pigs and rabbits. 

 These early students formed into decoctions, tinctures, 

 elixirs and liniments the plants or parts thereof, that they 

 considered beneficial. Incidentally thej- learned much 

 about vegetable structure, physiology and relationship. 

 They were compelled to systematize — and hence gave us 

 our first ideas of taxonom3^ They, of course, saw that 

 some families or genera of plants contained more potent 

 members than others and were, in consequence, natundly 

 led to look for properties in newlj- discovered individuals 



