I. VEGETABLES. 3 



eggs of any insects that would otherwise be hatched amongst 

 them. Aromatic lierbs ought to be dried quickly with a mode- 

 rate heat, that their odour may not be lost. Almost all plants, 

 after they have been dried so as to become brittle, give a little, 

 and become more odorous, as melilot, red roses, oak of Jerusalem, 

 lesser centaury. Some persons have proposed to dry herbs in a 

 water-bath ; but this occasions them to be as it were half-boiled 

 in their own water, especially as the evaporation goes on slowly 

 in close vessels. With respect to the collection of the leaves of the 

 biennial narcotic plants, Mr. Houlton has made the very impor- 

 tant remark that they do not possess medicinal activity until their 

 •second year, and that a great part of the leaves of hyoscyamus 

 Lullected for sale are of the first year's growth, mucilaginous and 

 inert. The mixture of these in unknown quantities with the 

 active leaves, and their being sometimes even used alone, must 

 render the extract or tincture prepared from them of very variable 

 strength and power. 



Flowers should in general be gathered in full bloom, and dried 

 as speedily as possible, the calyces, claws, &c., being previously 

 taken off: when the flowers are very small, the calyx is left, or 

 even the whole flowering spike, as in the greatest portion of the 

 labiate flowers. Compound flowers, with pappous seeds, as 

 coltsfoot, ought to be dried very high before they are entirely 



ened, otherwise the slight moisture that remains would develope 



e pappi, and these would form a kind of cottony nap, which 

 ould be very hurtful in infusions, by leaving irritating particles 



the throat. Flowers of little or no smell may be dried in a 

 heat of 75 to 100 deg. Fahr. The succulent petals of the liliace- 

 ous plants, whose odour is very fugacious, cannot well be dried, 

 as their mucilaginous substance rots and grows black. Several 

 sorts of flowering tops, as those of lesser centaury, lily of the 

 valley, wormwood, melilot, water germander, &c., are tied in 

 small parcels, and hung up, or else exposed to the sun, wrapped 

 in paper cornets, that they may not be discoloured. 



After some time, blue flowers, as those of violets, bugloss, or 

 I borage, grow yellow, and even become entirely discoloured, espe- 

 cially if they are kept in glass vessels that admit the light ; if, 

 however, they arc dipped for a moment in boiling water, and 

 .slijThtly pressed before they are put into the drying stove, the blue 

 c.oUniv i^ rciirlcred permanent. 



FruitMy unless their efficacy depends upon the acerbity of their 



^iuice, ought to be gathered when they are ripe, and kept upon a 



I^Hfryer of straw, in order to ripen, in a cool, dry, shady place. 



J^Ktic fruits ought not to touch one another, lest they should grow 



^^pUen for want of free evaporation at the place where they touch. 





