HORTICULTURE IN RELATION TO MEDICINE. 



55 



interest in the garden. It is probably not generally known that the 

 then Lord Steward intended to turn the houses at Kew into vineries, and 

 actually offered the plants contained in them to the Royal Horticultural 

 Society at Chiswick, and to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Regent's Park, 

 an offer which both gardens fortunately refused. Under pressure of 

 public indignation the charge of the botanical and other gardens was 

 subsequently transferred to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 

 1841. The Physic Garden at Kew has now dwindled to a small special 

 collection in front of the No. 2 Museum, the majority of the medicinal 

 plants, shrubs, and trees being now scattered over the gardens in the 

 special botanical groups to which they belong. 



In 1865 the celebrated Kew Gardens came under the direction of 

 Dr. J. D. Hooker (who was subsequently knighted), and enormous strides 

 were made in the knowledge of botany and horticulture. Kew became 

 the centre from which new plants have been distributed throughout the 

 Empire, and from which the extensive cultivation of medicinal plants in 

 our Colonies has been initiated, and it still holds a foremost position 

 amongst the botanical gardens of the world. The present Director, 

 Sir W, Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., the son-in-law of the late Director, 

 is also connected with the medical profession, being a Fellow of the 

 Apothecaries' Society. 



Probably no botanical garden in the world has done more to spread 

 a knowledge of plants and to stimulate the cultivation of beautiful, 

 ornamental and useful plants than that of Kew. It is interesting to 

 note that the very latest beautiful new plant exhibited in these rooms, 

 Meconopsis integrifolia, was made known to the world by a member of 

 the medical profession, the well-known Chinese botanist, Dr. Augustin 

 Henry. 



It might perhaps have been supposed, when a number of the old 

 herbal remedies were discarded by the medical profession and omitted 

 from the list of vegetable "materia medica" in the Pharmacopoeia, that 

 they would have dropped entirely out of use. But such is not the case. 

 Two large London wholesale firms still find sufficient sale for what are 

 now called herbs (to distinguish them from the more powerful medicinal 

 plants used in allopathic practice) to form an extensive trade. This is 

 partly due to the fact that the operatives in the midland and northern 

 counties have found that a tea or beer made from tonic herbs is cheaper 

 and less intoxicating than ordinary beer. This beer is largely used, 

 especially where, as in puddling furnaces and in the potteries, it is 

 necessary to drink often on account of the constantly high temperature 

 in which the men work. Two other preparations, known as Composition 

 Powder and Composition Essence, are also largely used for colds, and as 

 a stimulant. They contain a powerfully pungent and somewhat astringent 

 substance known as bayberry bark (Myrica cerifera), the bark of the 

 hemlock fir (Tsuga canadensis), cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. Workmen 

 in the large factories in the northern counties often take a teaspoonful of 

 the essence in a glass of water as a substitute for tea before starting for 

 their work on a cold morning in winter. It will be readily understood, 

 therefore, that it is still possible for herbalists to make a living in some of 

 our larger manufacturing towns and cities. 



