PREFACE 



It will appear strange to many when they hear for the 

 first time that no popular work has yet appeared, devoted 

 exclusively to the commercial products of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom; much however has been written, and written 

 well, in various large works, by several authors upon Botany 

 and Materia Medica, especially by Sir William Hooker, Dr. 

 Royle, Dr. Lindley, and Dr. Pereira, and from their writings 

 much of the information contained in this volume is derived. 

 I am more particularly indebted to the last-mentioned gen- 

 tleman. No one has done so much as Dr. Pereira towards 

 dissipating the cloud of ignorance which envelopes the his- 

 tory of vegetable products ; and it is much to be regretted 

 that, by his melancholy death, the splendid edition of his 

 large work should have been left unfinished ; it is however 



