PREFACE. v. 



jot above the studies of a raiser of tulips or a car- 

 nation fansier. 



When we consider the study of plants, as the 

 search of remedies for diseases, we see it in the 

 light of one of the most honourable sciences in 

 the world ; in this view, no pains are too great 

 to have been bestowed in its acquirement ; and 

 in this intent, the principal regard ought to be 

 had to those of our own growth. The foreign 

 plants brought into our stoves with so much ex- 

 pence, and kept there with so much pains, may 

 rill the eye with empty wonder : but it would 

 be more to the honour of the possessor of them, 

 to have found out th use of one common herb 

 at home, than to have enriched our country with 

 an hundred of the others. Nay, in the eye of rca- 

 on, this ostentatious study is rather a reproach. 

 Why should he, who has not yet informed himself 

 thoroughly of the nature of the meanest herb 

 which grows in the next ditch, ransack the earth 

 for foreign wonders ? Does he not fall under the 

 same reproach with the generality of those, who 

 travel for their improvement, while they are igno- 

 rant of all they left at home ; and who are ridicu- 

 lous in their inquiries concerning the laws and 

 government of other countries, while they are not 

 able to give a satisfactory answer to any question 

 which regards their own ? 



I have said thus much to obviate the censures 

 of those, to whom an inquiry into the virtues of 

 herbs may seem the province of a woman. It is 

 an honour to the sex, that they have put our 

 studies to use ; but it would be well, if we had 

 done so ourselves; orif, considering that they might, 

 we had made our writings more intelligible to 

 them. 



The intent of words is to express our meaning: 



