18 Introduction 



strong points and limitations. Hence, when any 

 one of the Smiths lays claim to ability and char- 

 acteristics foreign to the family in general, we 

 indulge our doubts until after he proves out in his 

 claims. Botanically we may know the Labiatae as 

 mints and non-poisonous aromatics. We may look 

 up this order of plants in a work on botany and 

 note that forty-five species of them are indigenous 

 to the United States, Thymus vulgaris being the 

 most active one. And yet hedge hyssop, of this 

 order, has recently been exploited as one ingredient 

 of a remedy for cancer. Knowing the Labiatae, 

 how improbable is it that any member of the order 

 would, or could, have any influence upon the course 

 of so serious a disease! 



On the other hand, when echinacea is exploited 

 as a remedy by many physicians, some claiming 

 much for it, and others those opposed wholly con- 

 demning the plant as inert, it need be no stranger 

 to us, for we know its natural order, the Compositae. 

 So we look up the Compositae and find that one- 

 tenth of all the flowering plants of the world are of 

 this order and few of them poisonous, the excep- 

 tions being Liatris odoratissima, used in smoking 

 tobacco, and producing cerebral intoxication; tansy, 

 which has occasionally caused death; Artemisia ab- 

 sinthium, the toxic agent of absinthe, which the 

 French Government has found necessary to sup- 

 press; and perhaps a few more. Others of the order, 

 while not actively toxic, are possessed of definite 

 activity. We may note lactucarium, eupatorium, 

 erigeron, grindelia, matricaria, and taraxacum. 



So, then, there is at least some ground for us to 

 expect that echinacea may be one of the excep- 



