PROSPECTUS 



OP 



GOOD'S FAMILY FLORA 



AND 



MATERIA MEDICA BOTANICA. 



A PERIODICAL. 



Twelve Numbers form a Part, published Quarterly, in January, March, June, September, 

 and December of each year, and these Parts form a Volume. Subscription, Three Dol- 

 lars per annum, in advance. 



THE first volume and several parts also of the second volume of the Family 

 Flora being now published, the public, as well as the profession, are, we trust, in 

 possession of sufficient materials to form a judgment of the character of the whole. 

 We cannot but feel exceedingly flattered by the expression of praise that has been 

 bestowed upon the work by those who are the most competent to form an opinion 

 on the subject. The approval of the press has also been highly gratifying. 



The following plan has been adopted in describing the plants illustrated in this 

 work. 



The botanic name of each plant, in large capitals, appears first; then the common 

 or vulgar name in italics ; next follows its place or habitation, and some of its most 

 prominent qualities, in smaller type, and after, a very short epitome of its power and 

 applicatidli. The whole of this division is intended to be terse and concise, exhib- 

 iting an appropriate head to the body of the matter. 



The botanical description of each plant embraces those characteristics (essential 

 and secondary as well as specific characters) which botanists have fixed on as the 

 only means by which a plant, that is not familiar to the reader of an account of it, 

 can, with certainty, be known ; and these descriptions are given in the language 

 employed by modern botanical writers. This method of discovering a plant by 

 comparisons" derived from a few particulars, and these of the most striking kind, is 

 certainly an agreeable and noble exercise of the understanding. 



The Natural History of each plant introduced in this publication embraces only 

 a general and familiar account of whatever does not properly come under the bo- 

 tanical analysis j and as this division of the subject is more particularly calculated 

 for the general reader, it is hoped, with the colored engravings, there will be no dif- 

 ficulty in identifying the several plants described. This study of plants possesses one 

 very eminent advantage ; it doubles the pleasure of every walk and journey, and 

 calls forth to healthy exercise the bodily as well as mental powers. 



For the chemical and medical department recourse has been had to every work 

 of reputation to which access could be obtained ; and as much useful information 

 regarding each of the plants treated of has been brought together as could be con- 

 veniently crowded into a small space. We are often placed in situations in which 

 it may be highly important to be able to recognize the vegetable which yields a par- 

 ticular medicine, and we are so constantly liable to imposition from the collectors 

 of herbs, that the necessity of possessing the means of distinguishing by infallible 

 marks the various vegetable products of the earth will be readily recognized. 



The extreme difficulty and great expense of executing the colored plates, at 

 once in an accurate and elegant style, can only be appreciated by those who have 

 actually attempted something of the same kind. It is gratifying, however, to find 

 that the general execution of the work has met with the public approbation, a 

 fact of which the favorable notices of the press and the large subscription list afford 

 ample evidence. It is also encouraging to learn that the Family Flora has already 

 been adopted as a text-book in many of our most respectable seminaries of educa- 

 tion ; and in noticing this fact, it may be proper to remark that the student who 

 may so use this work will find his labors greatly facilitated by using, in connection 

 with it, the excellent " Class-Book of Botany," by Alphonso Wood, A. M., a new 

 edition of which has recently been published. 



