PHARMACEUTICAL HERBARIA. 



337 



a small collection of medicinal plants preserved in herbarium- 1866t 



form, and to draw attention to the ease with which such a col- 



lection may be formed. One of the regulations imposed by a 



paternal but despotic government on the continental apothecary 



is that he shall provide and maintain in good order for the use 



of his apprentices, an herbarium of medicinal plants. Let us 



draw a lesson from this. In the British Pharmacopoeia about 



170 plants are enumerated as furnishing the vegetable Materia 



Medica prescribed in that work ; and of this number more than 



50 are either indigenous to or are cultivated in Great Britain. An 



herbarium comprising even four-fifths of this number would be Formation 



no unimportant aid to the student who was "reading up" a ^ a a d n v ^_ ge 



subject so uninviting to most as Materia Medica. I would not, barium. 



however, restrict my herbarium to the plants of the pharma- 



copoeia. There is a considerable number that are used in rustic 



medicine, some cf which were held official by the London 



College of Physicians but a few years back. As instances of 



this, let me enumerate Woodsorrel, Sweet Flag, Garlic, Marsh 



Mallow, Asarabacca, Bistort, Bitter Cress, Lesser Centaury, 



Quince, Carrot, Black Hellebore, Elecampane, Lettuce, Bay, 



Common Mallow, Horehound, Pennyroyal, Wormwood, Buck- 



bean, Tormentilla, and Coltsfoot. To this number may be added 



with advantage certain plants which are interesting to the 



pharmacist from their liability to be confounded with others that 



are official, as Pyrethrum and Matricaria which may be mis- 



taken for Chamomile, Fool's Parsley supposed sometimes to do 



duty for Conium, Hawkbit and Ehamnus Frangula, which it is 



said have been passed off for Dandelion and Buckthorn. 



As to exotic medicinal plants, the difficulty of obtaining Exotic plants 

 specimens would, I must admit, be far greater, and the pharma- 

 ceutical herbarium must inevitably contain many blanks. Still 

 as the Pharmaceutical Society numbers over 40 members resid- 

 ent in foreign countries, it would not, I believe, be impossible to 

 interest some of them in procuring and forwarding to our se- 

 cretary specimens for distribution of some of the commoner 

 economic plants occurring in their respective districts. In this 

 way our pharmaceutical herbaria might be enriched with such 



