PREFACE. 



The following Introduction has been prepared with 

 the hope that it may meet the needs of students of phar- 

 macognosy in our schools of pharmacy. 



In general scope it follows the well-established lines 

 already laid down by our European confreres, departing 

 in many particulars, however, from most works pub- 

 lished heretofore in this country. Thus special emphasis 

 has been laid on the microscopic rather than the macro- 

 scopic characters of drugs, although the latter have not 

 been entirely neglected, and considerable attention has 

 been given to the description of drug powders. 



While there have been many manuals in which the 

 student of plant structures could find ample instruction 

 concerning general histological features, no work has 

 been offered in this country which deals with the special 

 individual anatomical characters of different drugs. 

 Such works have been issued in Germany by Moeller, 

 Tschirch, Meyer, Marme, Fliickiger, and others, and the 

 monumental volume of Plancon and Collin, nearly two 

 thousand pages, testifies in a measure to the value set 

 by the French upon such studies Greenish, of London, 

 in 1903 gave to the English pharmacists a guide similar 

 in general features to the volume here presented. 



The present Introduction has been in preparation for 

 some time, and here appears, not as a stupendous vol- 

 ume such as those of Fliickiger or Plancon and Collin, but 

 in a compressed and convenient form. This form, rather 

 than that of an enormous reference book has been de- 



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