1895.] ESSAYS. 85 



I think that formerly, the native plants, or rather those growing 

 wild, were better known by most people than now. The development 

 of civilization has a tendency to gather people together in constantly 

 enlarging communities, where the competition of business life absorbs 

 most of the attention ; but a stronger reason, probably, is the change 

 constantly going on in medical practice. In olden times, there 

 existed a real and sincere art of healing, which rested mainly upon 

 the knowledge of herbs. There was some quackery which attached 

 itself to the genuine art, false notions which had powerful effects. 

 Mineral and chemical remedies are comparatively modern. The 

 vocabulary of our language proves this. The term drug is from the 

 Anglo Saxon clrigan, to dry. The first drugs were dried herbs ; so 

 that the study of plants naturally was identified with medicine by 

 long tradition. Whqn, in the 16th century, the chief cities of Europe 

 established gardens for the study of plants, these gardens were called 

 Physic Gardens, a name not long extinct. 



Our flora contains a number of plants which have had more or less 

 repute. The first ship loaded from what is now Massachusetts, 

 carried to England a load of sassafras. In the list of our plants of 

 this character we may include the liverleaf or hepatica, meadow rue, 

 goldthread, barberry, pappoose-root, blood-root, violets, mallow, 

 toothache tree, buckthorn, agrimony, hamamelis, caraway, ginseng, 

 fever-wort, thoroughwort (a satisfactory and suggestive name), 

 elecampane, yarrow, wormwood, coltsfoot, chiccory, lobelia, Indian 

 hemp, vervain, pennyroyal, catnip, motherwort, self-heal, plantain, 

 slippery elm, — but I cannot exhaust the list. Some of these are 

 native, some naturalized, but now fully at home. 



In our great number of species there are many that are beautiful 

 and worthy of cultivation. Some of them are sought for this pur- 

 pose in Europe. It is natural that the common should appear to 

 have less value than the rare or exotic. 



It is the fate which plants share in common with all objects of 

 human consideration. But on that account our local flora is not the 

 less worthy of a share of our interest ; it will, in fact, enlarge our 

 interest in the exotic flora of the greenhouse and in the botany of 

 the world as a whole. The material for such study is abundant and 

 cheap. There will always be some people who will appreciate it 

 fully. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Draper. I feel as if I was stepping upon unfamiliar ground 

 in trying to enter into a discussion which this paper would naturally 

 7 



