85 



this art in the greatest estimation, and it is to be lamented 

 that although we have increased the variety of colours, we 

 are yet unable to give them that durability which they are 

 known to have once 1 possessed, and which forms their prin- 

 cipal value. The mode of making the Tyrian dye or ancient 

 royal purple, has been long lost. But if the cloth coloured 

 by it could have been preserved, and what is told of it be 

 true, the stain might have been as lasting as the story of its 

 discovery. 



The medicinal qualities of plants is an important and in- 

 teresting subject of investigation, and it is surprising that 

 the spirit of research and discovery, so remarkable in our 

 countrymen, should not have been more operative on this 

 subject. The flower which is now heedlessly trampled un- 

 der foot, may possess virtues for the relief of many maladies, 

 which, from our ignorance of its properties, we are unable 

 to cure : — And when it is recollected that plants which dif- 

 fer widely from each other in habits of life, and in internal 

 structure, have been found to produce the same results,* it 

 may be confidently expected that a period will arrive when 

 our own country will furnish us, with most of the medicines 

 which are now imported. Already many plants which were 

 noticed as desiderata for American cultivation, andf which 

 twenty years ago were esteemed exotics, are now found 

 growing in our fields and forests. The new and rapid im- 

 provements which are making in the Materia Medica, flatter 

 us with a hope that Pharmacy will soon banish from her list, 

 most of her mineral applications, those banes, too often, of 

 the health and constitution, which like the Vampyres of Java, 

 eventually destroy the blood, while they lull, in present se- 

 curity, the unsuspecting victim. 



In this place I shall mention a few native medicinal plants, 

 some of which have not been publicly noticed. 



The Aristolochia Serpentaria, or Virginia Snake Root, to- 



* Homberg produced the same principle from Cabbage as from 

 Hemlock. Edin. Rev. No. 13. 

 f American Philos. Trans, vol. p. 325 to 380. 



F 



