APPENDIX. 371 



cilaginous quality, he might have guessed this to 

 be its virtue, from what he before knew of medi- 

 cine. The next plant he meets, we will suppose 

 is the common mallow, and afterwards the > little 

 white flowered mallow, which lies upon the. 

 ground ; he tastes the root of these, and he finds 

 they are like the other ; he will therefore guess, 

 that they have the same virtues and upon trial, 

 he will find it is so. 



Hut this is not all : if he had examined the 

 flower of the marshmallow, in what manner it 

 Avas constructed, and how the little threads grew 

 within it, he would have found that the flowers 

 of these other two mallows were, in all respects, 

 like those of the other ; and farther, he would 

 have found, that the seeds of these two kinds 

 were in the same manner disposed in circular bo- 

 dies : from this he might, without tasting their 

 roots, have been led to guess that their virtues 

 were the same ; or having guessed so much from 

 this., he might have been thence led to taste them, 

 and by that have been confirmed in it : but he 

 might he carried farther ; he would find the same 

 sort of round clusters of seeds in the hollyoak 

 in his garden ; and upon examining the single 

 flowers, he would see they were also alike : and 

 hence he would discover that it was of (his kind ; 

 and he would rightly judge that the hollyoak, also 

 possessed the same virtues. 



This is a method by which many of the plants 

 mentioned in this book, have been found to have 

 virtues which others neglected ; for there are 

 many named in the preceding pages, and named 

 with great praise, of which others have made 

 little account : these are the means by which the 

 first guesses have been made about their virtues ; 

 and experiments have always confirmed them. 



