6 
Finally, and perhaps as to the most important point of my researches, 
I have to reflect upon the practical usefulness of our vegetable creation, either 
with regard to medicine, manufactures, or in a domestic point of view. 
The inestimable ti’uth, that we may sahdy deduct the closest affinities 
of the medicinal properties of plants from their natural alliances — a truth which 
achieved the most complete trium])h of tlie natural system over all artificial 
classifications — has generally guided me in tracing out which plants might be 
administered in medicine. 
amara, in those qualities for which that ])lant has been administered in "con- 
sumption, but also participates in the medicinal virtue of Polygala senega, from 
North America. Gratiola latifolia and Gratiola pubescens. Convolvulus 
erubescens, and the various kinds of Mentha, are not inferior to similar 
European species. The bark of Tasmania aromatica appears to me to possess 
the JTiedicinal power of the ‘Wintera bark, gathered from a similar tree in Tierra 
del Fuego ; and its fruit is allied to that of the North American Alagnolim 
used in cases of rheumatism and intermittent fever. The whole natural order 
of Goodeniacea?, with the exception, ])erhaps, of a few species, contains a tonic 
bitterness never recognised before, and discernible in mau}'^ plants in so high a 
degree, that I was induced, for this reason, to bestow upon a nerv genus from 
the interior the name of Picrophyta ; this property, which indicates a certain 
alliance to Gentianem, deserves the more consideration, as the true Gentianem 
are so sparingly distributed through Australia, while the Goodenicem form 
everywhere here a prominent feature in the vegetation. Our Alps, however, 
euiich us also with a thick-i'ooted Gentian (G. Diemensis), certainly as valuable 
as the officinal Gentiana lutea; and in the spring, Sabma ovata, Sabma albidi- 
flora, and Lrythrma Australis, might also be collected on account of their 
bitterness. Ihe bark of the Australian Sassafras tree (Atherospermum mos- 
chatum) has already obtained some celebrity as a substitute for tea ; — adminis- 
tered in a greater concentration, it is diaphoretic, as well as diuretic, and has for 
this reason already been practically introduced into medicine by one of our 
eminent physicians. Isotoma axillaris surpasses all other indigenous Lobe- 
lacem in Its intense acridity, and can be therefore only cautiously employed 
11 of Malva Behriaria scarcely differs from 
Uiat of Althaea officinalis, and the Salep root might be collected from many 
rciK cae. ew may be aware that the Cajepiit oil of India is obtained from 
roes very similar to our common Melaleucm ; and that CA^cn from tlie leaves of 
fmm Ih " r r?” TV ‘ of equal utility. The Sandarac, exuding 
vT t ! i'"' r’ ^ of the grass trees, and, more- 
'ind could be gathered in boundless quantities, 
kiim or o s^pev^ede ihe use of 
, vill piobably at a future period form articles of export. 
for the abirnffl. are of essential service, either for their durable wood, or 
uJffu oi f h tl^cm alre;dy 
bilitv 'bv that obTd latter is even excelled in clearness and solu- 
manUthel nlantrn^^^ P^ttosporum acacioides. This species, as well as 
rently IiarniLs bittmmeL-Tqiri tv tint w "" surin-ising yet appa- 
over a great part of the i!4‘tem hemSphorr'’”’'”’ 
ehieftv bv'th^eicudes'iro^o^-iT saccharine secretion, condensed 
diHercntl^ constitued to the Omuf Ena nS^muclS'’'" aomicaily very 
splendid Diosmete-a real ornament rri.eeo"n,trv A, T 
their medicinal effect to the South African Bucco-bushes!'^^^^^ 
