140 
“ wound-worts,” and “ all-heals;” they were expected to cure every 
disorder in the catalogue of human ills, and every garden became a 
little Apothecaries’ Hall. This was the belle dame age of medicine, 
when the old woman doctress had much more to do than the apothe- 
cary, and worked her pestle and mortar to good purpose. About a 
quarter of a century ago, one Mrs. Welton was well known at St. 
John’s, near this city, as a doctress, and a “ grand compounder” 
of balsams, salves, syrups, &c., and did a wonderful business in the 
“yarb” way. 
“Midst leaves and flowers 
She dwelt, and knew all secrets of their powers.” 
He now came to geographical Botany, for it was to be observed, that 
plants, being influenced in their development by soil, by latitude, 
temperature, moisture, and elevation, the Flora of one country was 
essentially different from that of another, each region of the land and 
water being occupied by distinct groups. As striking instances of 
diversity in vegetation, no rose had ever been found in the southern 
hemisphere ; equinoctial Africa had no Laurinie, and while more 
than 300 species of Erica, or heath, were congregated in the territory 
of the Cape of Good Hope, none belonged to America, except it was 
the common ling in the far North. The pines and firs, so abundant 
in the northern hemisphere, were replaced in the south by Araucarias 
and Cycadez. Islands in the wide ocean had generally a peculiar 
vegetation, the Canaries had 510 species, and St. Helena nearly 60, 
that had never been seen elsewhere. So the plants of South America 
were restricted to that continent, and out of 4,100 indigenous to Aus- 
tralia, only 166 belonged to Europe, many of these, too, accidentally 
introduced by settlers. Even marine vegetation was distinct in its 
character, that of the Mediterranean and Red Sea being entirely’ dif- 
ferent. Reference was then made to many local British. plants only 
found in particular spots, as the Helianthemum Breweri, on the rocks 
at Holyhead; the white rock cinquefoil (Potentilla rupestris), on 
Craig Breiddin, in Wales, &c.; and thus a zest was given to the zeal 
of the exploring botanist in searching out the rare plants thus cireum- 
stanced. Heat and moisture were the great instigators of plantal 
vitality, and where these preponderated, as in equatorial regions, the 
largest flowers appeared, as the Victoria lily and the monstrous 
Rafflesia, whose corolla was a yard across. Here, too, palms and 
bananas abounded, as also in the tropical zone, distinguished by its 
cocoa-nuts and tree-ferns. The earth might, then, be divided into 
