Medical Properties of Flowers 



few would boast to have altogether mastered, for 

 the family consists of more than i ooo genera and 

 8000 species, of which the groundsels alone claim 

 over 500 species, and they are scattered all over 

 the world. Yet of these 8000 species there is 

 not one that can be called absolutely hurtful ; it 

 is true there are not many that are of much use 

 to man, but it is something to know that at least 

 they will not hurt him. The other great family, 

 the gramineae, do not contain so many species 

 — they are between 4000 and 5000 — but in 

 abundance of individuals they surpass all other 

 plants. They are to be found everywhere, in all 

 climates, arctic, tropical, or temperate ; they are 

 in every geological formation ; they are easily 

 distinguished from every other plant, and there 

 is not a single member of the family from the 

 minutest grass to the most gigantic bamboo, that 

 is not useful to man. Sir J. Hooker well sums up 

 the properties of the family — "Nutritious herbage, 

 and farinaceous seed; stem and leaves useful for 

 various textile and other purposes.'' 



I have only mentioned six families of plants, 

 but they are good representative families, and I 

 have selected them because they are easy of 

 recognition ; but I could easily have gone much 

 further and have shown that what I have said 

 of these six families is, more or less, true of all 

 plants ; and the point that I wish to establish is 

 that our fathers were not so foolish as they might 

 appear in their doctrine of signatures ; there is 

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