OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



OF 



THE USES OF PLANTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 I. ECONOMIC BOTANY MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS 



AGO. 



'As plants convert the minerals into food for animals,' 

 says Emerson, 'so each man converts some raw 



material in Nature to human use Justice has 



already been done to steam, to iron, to wood, to coal, 

 to loadstone, to iodine, to corn, and cotton ; but how 

 few materials are yet used by our arts !'* It is no 

 mean boast for botanical science that, from the first 

 writings of the herbalists of the sixteenth century 

 down to the present day, her chief votaries have never 

 allowed the charm of pure science to divert their 

 attention from the practical application of their 

 studies to the wants of their fellow-men. From the 

 days when Gerard (1545-1612) sent collectors to the 

 Levant to supply his physic-garden in Holborn, and 

 from the foundation of our great national collection 

 by Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), whose correspondents 



* 'Representative Men,' London, 1870, p. 4. 



