94 A COSTKIBUTIOX TO, ETC. 



i complete set of woods belonging to the district, worked up into 

 different articles of furniture, and arranged systematically for 

 the edification of all interested in such matters. Nature has 

 done more for us than we are thankful for, or are even aware of; 

 and it would be easy for us to prove that the Parramatta district is 

 not only highly favoured in the excellency and durability of its 

 woods, but that its creeks abound in plants which may hereafter 

 be rendered available for the purposes of medicine and the arts 

 in general. We have much to study in our own immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, and whilst in the pure atmosphere of the country we 

 are engaged in seeking after the useful and beautiful productions 

 of the earth, we shall not only attain in*some measure, " a sound 

 mind in a sound body," but also a profound impression that "the 

 works of GOD" are indeed " great," and " sought out of all them 

 that have pleasure therein !" 



MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE MKKAMATTA 

 DISTEICT. 



T T is much to be regretted that scientific men in this colony have 

 paid so little attention to the subject of Medical Botany. 

 Surrounded, as we are, by shrubs and plants possessing medicinal 

 properties, there is a wide field for investigation ; and, no doubt, 

 it will be found in time to come, that we have been sending to 

 distant countries for expensive medicines, whilst remedies equally 

 efficacious might be procured close at hand in all their native 

 freshness. It was the belief of the ancients that all physic is 

 included in simples ; and hence they had recourse to remedies 

 "simple, natural, of 110 expense, always at hand, and within the 

 reach of the poorest persons." Pliny cannot endure the idea of 

 sending to remote countries in quest of medicines, whilst nature 

 in her wild profusion scatters them almost everywhere. The 

 great doctors of antiquity, ^Esculapius, Hippolytus, Chiron, 

 and Japis, invariably connected the art of curing with the power 

 of herbs ; and, indeed, so impressed were the ancients with the 



