PREFACE 



M J aim in the compilation of this work has been to give 

 to the drug trade a reliable, convenient, and quick reference 

 book, containing all of the botanical drugs known up to the 

 present time, giving all of their Botanical^ Common^ Pharina- 

 copceial and German Common (in German) Names ^ and Medi- 

 cal Properties. The author has consulted the best standard 

 authorities, and works on Materia Medica,and an experience 

 of fifteen years in the drug business materially assisted in 

 the convenient arrangement of this work. To make the 

 book practically useful, the subject has been treated with 

 plainness and simplicity, as far as possible. I am well aware 

 that druggists are, almost daily, perplexed by the use of 

 common names, as applied to botanical drugs, and even 

 botanical names (as many have two or more); and in the 

 absence of a book to which you can readily refer, a sale is 

 often missed, when you have the goods wanted, in your 

 stock, but not known to you or your assistant, by the 

 botanical or common name applied to it by your customer, 

 (the only one known to him). By close examination of this 

 work, you will see the author has surmounted all of these 

 difficulties, and believes it is a Reference Book, that will be 

 fully appreciated, and has long been needed by the drug 

 trade. 



J. M.NICKELL. 



