10 MEDICINAL HERBS iVND POISONOUS PLANTS 



a heterogeneous mass of discrete elements; it is obviously 

 a matter of great convenience to be able to place a plant 

 in its position in a scheme of classification, for when this 

 is done we know not onlj^ the points of structure which 

 \ye have discovered for ourselves, but also many other 



points which are found 

 in all the members of a 



particular family. 



This 



mode of procedure may 

 often serve a practical pur- 

 pose. Thus the poison- 

 ous root of the Aconite 

 (Monkshood) is sufficiently 

 similar to the nutritious 



root of the Horse Radish 



(see fig. 8) to have caused 



mistakes — frequently fatal 



the substituting' of 



Aconite 



Horse Eatlisli 



Fiff. 8 



the one for the other. If 

 the flowers or fruit of 

 these . plants ^re present, 

 the collector can at once 

 ascertain whether he is 

 gathering the right root, 

 as the Horse Radish be- 

 longs to a family (Crucj- 

 FEK.^:) the flowers and 

 fruit of which are quite 

 different from those of the 



Aconite (Ranunculace^e). 



Again, if further justification be necessary, attention 

 to the classification of plants not only conduces to the 

 methodical arrangement of the matter which the mind 

 has gathered together, but also effects ji simplification 

 whicb considerably eases the study of the subject. 



