MEDICINAL PLANTS 



NEW-YORK. 



The State of New-York, embracing an area equal to the whole of 

 Great Britain, abounds in natural resources of an almost inexhaustible 

 character ; furnishing as many incitements to mental and physical 

 labor, as any territory of the same extent on the habitable globe. 

 These resources are, through the liberality of the state government, and 

 the enterprise of private individuals, becoming rapidly developed, and 

 in a few more years, at farthest, we shall doubtless have the materials 

 for acquiring a very complete knowledge of the entire natural history 

 of the state. We have thought that we should do our readers a ser. 

 vice, and add our mite towards the advancement of this great work, if 

 we presented in our pages, in a moderate compass, as full a list of the 

 medicinal plants of the state, as our present means of information 

 would enable us to supply ; and we have accordingly prepared such a 

 catalogue from all the sources within our reach ; which we now offer 

 to the profession. In doing this, we have drawn largely from the re- 

 cent "Flora of the State of New- York," by Dr. Torrey; without 

 which, indeed, the work could not have been accomplished. We have 

 also followed Dr. T.'s arrangement, as the best within our knowledge. 

 One object of our catalogue is, to aid the profession throughout the state, 

 in further investigating our indigenous materia medica ; and to this end, 

 we have adopted the natural system of arrangement, as the only one 

 which can serve as a useful guide to the medical man in pursuing the 

 study of this interesting science. By comparing the medicinal proper- 

 ties of all the plants, belonging to the same natural order, he will be 

 able to understand how far botanical affinities aid in arriving at a 

 knowledge of their therapeutic effects, and to avail himself of these 

 analogies in prosecuting further researches. 



1 



