310 



till some new facts or plants are discovered that derange the fair edi- 

 fice, which has now to be re-constructed only again to be destroyed."* 



Now, is it not derogatory to botanical science that it should be 

 forced to take shelter under the veil of fiction, and that under a false 

 title it should be held up as a model of perfection ? The most attrac- 

 tive allurement to its study and adoption, has been that it would, in 

 the easiest way in the world, disclose to us the various properties of 

 plants, and that to medical men it would prove a perfect talisman, — 

 that " it informs the medical inquirer not only of the botanical affini- 

 ties of the plants, but also supplies him with a knowledge of their 

 properties and qualities. This acquaintance with the properties of 

 even one plant of any order enables him to form some idea of the 

 remedial value of all the other plants in the same order, and if needful, 

 to substitute, upon fixed principles, any one of them for that which is 

 more usually employed." So said Dr. A. T. Thomson, f but he only 

 repeated what every one was expected to believe, and were it true^ it 

 would have placed this natural system on so high a pinnacle that we 

 might almost overlook the rodomontade and cant so often reiterated 

 about the progress of the science, the advance of the human mind, 

 and the boastings that this misnamed system is the only one capable 

 of casting a lustre over the empire of Flora, while Linneus and all the 

 fathers of botany who preceded him were little better than rushlights 

 glimmering in mist and darkness, the natural system being the true 

 sun which has arisen in the latter days to illumine the deep obscure, 

 and spread its genial effulgence over every flower that blows. But 

 alas ! sic transit gloria mundi ; the " spirit of progress " has proved 

 to be a lying spirit, and the assertion that the natural system will 

 lead us to a knowledge of the properties of plants is a mere fabrica- 

 tion. I have already, perhaps, given evidence enough of this,| but I 

 will nevertheless here advance an additional proof, which of itself 

 would be sufficient to refute the vain boasts that have been made on 

 the subject. 



The beautiful blue-flowered monk's-hood [Aconitum Napellus), so 

 common in gardens, is intensely poisonous, so much so that ihe Jiftieth 

 part of a grain, of the alkaloid obtained from it will kill a sparrow in 

 a few minutes. The Aconitum ferox of the East Indies is still more 

 powerful ; the root " is prevalently used there as an energetic poison, 



* Thos. Edmondston, jun., in ' Phylologist,' vol. i. p. 761. 

 f ' Elements of Materia Medica,' ed. 2, p. 40. 

 % See ' Observations on Natural Systems,' &c. 



