SUBSTANCES REPUTED MEDICINAL. 
(DRUGS). 
In regard to the ‘‘ New Remedies,” it will be well to remember 
the judicious remarks of Sir Joseph Hooker in his introductory 
essay on the Flora of Australia, appended to the Flora of 
Tasmania. 
“I have not alluded to pharmaceutical plants: such may exist, 
and multitudes of the weeds, seeds, and roots of Australia will no 
doubt enjoy a more or less substantial reputation as drugs for a 
period, and then be consigned to oblivion. This is the pharma- 
ceutical history of the plants of all countries that have long been 
inhabited by civilised man, and Australia will form no exception 
to them, the fact being, that of the multitude of names of plants 
that appear in Pharmacopzias, the number of really active and 
useful plants is extremely small.” 
Queensland is by far the richest of the colonies in plants con- 
cerning which medicinal properties have been recorded ; but the 
great majority of these will be found to be also common to India 
and the Archipelago, and to have been employed by the natives of 
those countries. 
With the exception of some plants not endemic in Australia, 
which have already been utilized by dwellers in older countries, 
most of the plants of this continent reputed medicinal, have 
been enquired into only when their true botanical positions 
were assigned. We are aware that certain properties are 
possessed by plants belonging to certain genera and natural 
orders; when an Australian plant is found to belong to such an 
* See also “ Essential Oils,’’ “Gums,” &c. The species found in New South Wales 
are dealt with ina paper read by the author before the Linnean Society of New South 
Wales, March, 1888, entitled Some Reputed Medicinal Plants of New South Wales. 
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