XVI INTRODUCTION. 
mark a rapid and progressive movement in the science of 
botany, until it has reached a position equal, if not supe- 
rior, to almost all other branches of natural history. And 
when we find such names as Haller, Rumphius, Ader, 
Schreber, Jacquin, Bergius, Reinholdt, Forster who sailed 
with Captain Cook, Jussieu, Sir Joseph Banks, Miller, 
Dryander, Gertner, Sir J. E. Smith, Withering, Wildenow, 
Humboldt, Roxburgh, Decandolle, Lindley, R. Brown, 
etc. etc., we may justly be proud of the science and study 
which includes such men as its votaries. 
To the medical student and practitioner a knowledge of 
plants, more particularly those appertaining to medicine, 
is of the utmost importance. How often may he be placed 
in situations where such a knowledge may not only be of 
the greatest advantage to himself, but of the greatest 
benefit to his fellow-men. By this knowledge he can save 
whole armies from destruction; he is able to choose the 
most salubrious situations for towns and encampments ; 
he can at once determine which plants are salutary and 
which are deleterious; that the natural families of the 
Cruciferee, Rosacex, Malvacee, Labiate are imnocuous, 
whilst the Solanew, Apocynes, Ranunculace, and Papa- 
veracex are almost all poisonous ; which of the Umbelliferze 
are edible, which are injurious; and by this knowledge 
he is enabled to distinguish the harmless weed from that 
which is a deadly poison. 
