CHAPTER IV. 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS YIELDING 

 VEGETABLE DRUGS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Inasmuch as the plants yielding drugs and proximate princi- 

 ples, represent a large number of families it will be found that the 

 study of the important characters of these groups will give a 

 rather comprehensive view of the important groups of the Angio- 

 sperms. Reference will also be made to other economic products 

 yielded by the angiosperms, as food-products, fibers, coloring 

 principles, woods and timbers, as well as to the plants commonly 

 cultivated for ornamental purposes. 



Drugs which are recognized by the pharmacopoeias are said 

 to be official. It should be understood that those referred to in 

 this book as being official are those recognized by the United 

 States Pharmacopoeia. 



Nomenclature. — The names first given to plants consisted 

 of a single Latin name, as Quercus, Rubus, Rosa, etc. Later some 

 of the names applied to plants were obtained from the Greeks 

 through Latin literature, as Aristolochia, Colchicum. The list 

 of classical names was added to from time to time from both the 

 Latin and Greek, as Convallaria, Glycyrrhiza, etc. Later the 

 names applied to plants in other countries were Latinized, as 

 Datura from the Arabic, Guaiacum from America. Since very 

 early times the names of distinguished men have been applied to 

 plants, as Asclepias which was dedicated to .^sculapius, and 

 Linnaea which was named after the great Swedish botanist Lin- 

 naeus. When it was found that there were different kinds of 

 plants in what had been considered a single type these were dis- 

 tinguished by the addition of other names indicating their specific 

 characters, and in this way plant names became quite long and 

 cumbersome. Botanical science is indebted to the Swedish botan- 

 ist Linnaeus for proposing names for plants separate from their 



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