

IV INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



to disclose and establish the many and important truths it embraces, ours 

 is equally indebted to the experiments and researches of patient and dis- 

 tinguished men. We should not, and we cannot, therefore omit to express 

 our sense of obligation for the interest which those observations and experi- 

 ments confer on the present volume. In addition to the sources already 

 enumerated in the first part, we would mention Loudon, Johnson, Barton, 

 Bell, Meeks, and the English and American Materia Medicas. Still, it 

 may not be irreverent to say that every word of the work has been 

 written by us with great care and much labor, requiring in its execution 

 the undivided time of more than a year, and necessarily demanding patient 

 and extended inquiry. In this, however, we have been animated by the 

 conviction that our selection and arrangement of subjects, and compression 

 of the most useful and remarkable particulars within the wide range of so 

 interesting a subject, was much wanted, and would be received with general 

 favor and liberality. And we cannot now deny ourselves the pleasure of 

 anticipating a favorable view of our design, and the importance of the 

 many useful facts we have given in the work, whatever that view may be 

 of the style and manner in which our design has been executed. 



In noticing particular plants, in the following pages, such only have been 

 described as have some useful or remarkable properties ; nor have we in- 

 cluded all such, for this would have swollen our work to double its present 

 size. But those most valuable to man as food, or as used in the various 

 purposes of life, and those, whether native or foreign, most essential to the 

 existence of lower animals, have been carefully presented and their known 

 qualities enumerated. Some errors and confusion may arise in this, from 

 the local, and consequently various, names given to plants. We may have 

 errrd ourselves in this particular, and the same plant may therefore be de- 

 scribed twice in some instances. But when the difficulty is so general and 

 obvious, not only with the public, but with all writers, we hope to escape 

 censure for that, at least, which was unavoidable. 



We have in all instances given the popular name when that is known, 

 and the botanical name when it is unknown, or doubtful. It is greatly to 

 be regretted, that uniformity has not been or cannot be obtained in this 

 very important matter. An effort is imperiously called for, in our opinion, 

 to accomplish this great object. English authority, in this respect, serves 

 only to render the difficulty still greater, for there, as here, the popular 

 name has originated oftentimes from the caprice or ignorance of the peo- 

 ple. Superstition and fancy have also contributed to the diversity of names 

 in other parts of Europe. 



In regard to the nativity or locality of many important plants, great dif- 

 ficulties also exist, both as to the country and the particular parts of the 



