THE PLANT*AS HEALER 145 
confused it with henbane, and Atropa Belladonna cannot 
be identified with certainty in the writings of the 
ancients. Datura Tatula serves the same purpose, and 
quite recently an ethnological report on certain Indian 
tribes, comments on their use of Datura Metel. 
Aloes, familiar in the Bible, was known to the Greeks 
400 B.C., and there are many interesting legends as to 
its value and trading in the time of Alexander, who 
caused it to be improved by cultivation in the island of 
Sokotra, from which supplies are still obtained, though 
many of the old plantations are now in disuse, since the 
introduction of the plant to the West Indies, etc. The 
quality of the bitter purgative juice depends largely 
upon care in the process of inspissation, and carelessness 
accounts largely for the inferior quality of South African 
aloes. 
The very important plant Digitalis (foxglove) seems 
not to have been introduced into medicine until the 
Middle Ages, perhaps partly because it is a native over 
the greater part of Europe, including Great Britain, 
flourishing on siliceous soils, and knowledge up to that 
time was derived from the East. The Welsh physicians 
of 1200 seem to have used it, though it was not named 
until 1542 by Fuchs. 
It was regarded at this period as a violent drug, and 
it was not until after the investigations in 1785 of 
Dr. Withering, a botanist and physician of repute, 
that it became established as a heart sedative of great 
value. / 
The history ofthe cultivation of Ipecacuanha con- 
‘stitutes an interesting page in therapeutical and botanical 
lore. A native of Brazil, it was in common use in that 
L 
