INTRODUCTION . 



GENERAL RULES 



FOR 



GATHERING AND PRESERVING HERBS, 



ROOTS, BARKS, SEEDS, AND FLOWERS 



Together with the Methods of Making such Preparations from them, as may best retain their Pirtuet, or "be most useful 



to be kept in Families. 



THE intention of the author is, to inform those who live 

 in the country, and are desirous of being useful to their fami- 

 lies and friends, or charitable to the poor in relieving their 

 disorders, of the virtues of those plants which grow wild 

 about them ; that they may be able to supply the necessary 

 assistance, in places where apothecaries are not at hand, 

 without putting themselves to the expense of costly medi- 

 cines, when the common herbs, that may be had for gather- 

 ing, will answer the same purpose. However, as there are 

 cases wherein more help may be obtained from foreign drugs, 

 than from any thing produced at home, an account of those 

 roots, barks, seeds, gums, and other vegetable productions, 

 kept by the druggists and apothecaries, is added, together 

 with their virtues, and those of the several trees and plants 

 from which they are obtained. 



The plants are alphabetically arranged, according to their 

 English names, that they may be the more readily found. 

 With regard to the virtues of plants, too many have been 

 attributed to most of them, but -here their real virtues only, 

 as ascertained by the experience of the best judges, are in- 

 troduced, and placed in the most conspicuous light. 



Nature has, in this country, as well as in all others, pro- 

 vided, in the herbs of its own growth, the remedies for the 

 several diesases to which it is most subject ; and although 

 the addition of what is brought from abroad, should not be 

 supposed superfluous, there is no occasion that it should 

 cause the other to oe neglected. This neglect has been 

 the consequence of the too great respect shewn to them ; 

 which, with the present universal use of chemical prepara- 

 tions, has almost driven the whole Galenical medicine out 

 of our minds. 



To restore this more safe, more gentle, and often more 

 efficacious part of medicine to its natural credit, has been 

 one great intent in writing this treatise j and it is the more 

 necessary for the service of those, who are intended most 

 to be directed in this matter, since this is much less danger- 

 ous than the other : for in most instances it is hard to say 

 that this is dangerous at all. 



The apothecaries are apt, in their unfeeling mockery, to 

 say, that they are obliged to the good persons who give 

 medicines to their sick neighbours, for a great deal of their 

 business ; for out of little disorders they make great ones. 

 This may be the case where their shops supply the means ; 

 for chemical medicines, and some of the drugs brought from 

 abroad, are not to be trusted with those who have not great 

 experience ; but there will be no danger of this kind, when 

 the fields afford the supply. This is the medicine of nature, 

 and as it is more efficacious in most cases, it is more safe in 



all. If opinm may be dangerous in an unexperienced hand, 

 the person who will give in its place a syrup of the wild 

 lettuce, (a plant not known in common practice at this time, 

 but recommended from experience in this treatise) will find 

 that it will ease pain, and that it will cause sleep, in the 

 manner of that foreign drug, but will never find any ill 

 consequences from it j and the same might be said in many 

 other instances. 



As the descriptions in this work very readily distinguish 

 what are the real plants that should be used, the great care 

 will remain, in what manner to gather and preserve, ;md in 

 what manner to give them ; it will be useful to add direc- 

 tions upon those heads. As to the. former, it should be per- 

 fectly understood, because a great deal depends upon it -, 

 the latter cannot easily be mistaken. 



Having displaced the drugs brought from abroad in a 

 great measure from charitable practice, every person who 

 has the spirit of true benevolence, should keep a kind of 

 druggist's shop, which should be supplied from the neigh- 

 bouring fields, and from their own gardens. There is no 

 reason the drugs should not be as well preserved, and as 

 carefully laid up, as if the product of a different climate, 

 though the use of the fresh plants will in general be best 

 when they can be had. 



As there are some which will not retain their virtues in a 

 dried state, and can be met with only during a small part of 

 the year ; it will be proper to add the best methods of pre- 

 serving these in some way, according to the apothecaries' 

 manner ; with the method of making the preparations from 

 them for ready service, which will be sufficient to lead to 

 the perfect use of the medicines of our own growtli ; and 

 it will be found upon experience, that those who sufficiently 

 know how to make a proper use of these, need seldom have 

 recourse to any others. 



Concerning the Methods of Collecting and Preserving Plants, 

 and Parts of them, for Use. 



THE virtues of different plants residing principally in cer- 

 tain parts of them, and those differing according to the na- 

 ture of the herb, these several parts are to be selected, and 

 the rest left ; and these are in some to be used fresh, and 

 just gathered; in others, either necessity, or the natural 

 preference, make it proper to dry and preserve them. 



In some onlythe leaves arc to be used; in others, the whole 

 plant cut from the root ; in others, theflowers only; in others, 

 the fruits ; in others, the seeds ; in some, the roots ; ami of 



