v ^ PREFACE. 



work now offered to the Profession is intended as a companion to the more 

 practical treatises, and also to convey such information on the systematic 

 classification, characters, and history of Medical Plants as has been necessarily 

 omitted in the publications alluded to. 



In the execution of the plan, the author has experienced some difficulty in 

 determining the limits of the work. To notice all the plants which have at 

 different times been employed in medicine, or have had remedial properties 

 assigned to them, would have been impossible in the compass of a single 

 volume, and merely to describe those recognised in the Pharmacopoeia would 

 have militated against the object of the work. It was thought that the end 

 would be best attained by dwelling at some length on the most important 

 articles of the Vegetable Materia Medica, or on such as are involved in some 

 obscurity as regards their botanical characters and history, and by noticing 

 the others in a brief manner. In doing this, they have been arranged according 

 to the natural orders, and it will be seen that the technical descriptions have 

 been drawn up in strict accordance with the present improved state of botani- 

 cal knowledge. • These descriptions are selected from the best authorities ; 

 in some cases without alterations, but in others altered, corrected, or con- 

 densed, so as to present as great a uniformity of phraseology as possible. As 

 the work is, from its very nature, a compilation, the only originality that can 

 be claimed by the author is in the selection and arrangement of his materials. 



To render the publication more generally useful, especially to those readers 

 who are not conversant with Botany, a short Introduction on the Structure 

 and Composition of Plants has been prefixed, with a copious Glossary of 

 terms, and a Conspectus of the Natural Orders of Plants containing remedial 

 substances ; these it is hoped will add to the value of the work, whilst they 

 do not materially swell its bulk. 



In the present state of Botanical Science, the most eminent authorities dis- 

 agree as regards the best mode of arranging the natural orders, and their 

 exact relations with each other. In this country, the classification of De Can- 

 dolle is best known, more especially as modified by Drs. Torrey and Gray. 

 By some, however, that of Lindley is preferred, whilst others prefer the sys- 



