150 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
loss as well as gain in this system, and the distinct revival 
of interest in herb lore may well be productive of the 
discovery of new and important drugs if associated with 
wider knowledge and more scientific investigation. 
In addition to the British Pharmacope@ia and the British 
Pharmaceutical Codex, there exists an important com- 
pendium of plants of established medicinal value in 
the National Botanic Pharmacopeia, published by the 
National Association of Medical Herbalists of Great 
Britain. 
The curious use of Drosera rotundifolia, the insec- 
tivorous sundew, which is official in homeopathy for 
pulmonary consumption, needs scientific investigation. 
Unfortunately in this country the people’s knowledge 
has been allowed to lapse more than on the Continent, 
where “ simples ”’ are still culled and administered by 
the housewife. This gives the more possibility, how- 
ever, of interesting results accruing from studies in 
relative folk-lore. 
As the ancients are said to have watched animals, 
so it behoves us to observe closely the habits of the 
primitive peoples still left in the remote corners of the 
earth. Exploratory and experimental research is still 
more necessary where, as in Australia, there are few 
natives, and those rapidly disappearing. We are un- 
fortunately unable to believe, with certain herbalists of 
the sixteenth century, that ‘‘ God has imprinted upon 
the plants the very signature of their virtues,’”’ by some 
cabalistic likeness to the part of the human body affected 
thereby, but.everything goes to show that Nature usually 
gives us the hint, if we do but sufficiently closely observe 
her doings, 
