xlviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
significance are invented by villagers to satisfy tbe curiosity of 
enquiring botanists. These names are of no use. Such being 
the case, a knowledge of botany to critically examine a plant is 
absolutely necessary. 
Besides botanical description and vernacular nomenclature, 
illustrations of plants prove a great help in identifying them. 
Though illustrations of several thousands of Indian plants 
are scattered in the works of Rheede, Roxburgh, Royle, Wight, 
Wallich, Beddome, Brandis, and Griffith and in the journals of 
the Linnan and other learned societies, yet a very large number 
of medicinal plants of this country remains to be illustrated.* 
The sooner illustrations of these plants are made the better for 
the cause of the study of indigenous drugs. 
After proper means have been taken to identify the medicin- 
al plants, so that we are quite sure that we all mean the same 
thing by the same name, we should turn our attention to the 
study of their properties and uses. We may commence such 
study with advantage, and it will be, moreover, of historical 
importance, if we first of all take into consideration the uses to 
which these plants were put in ancient times by the Hindus. 
With this view, we should consult the medical works of the 
Hindus, e. g., Charaka, Sushruta, Nighantu, &c. 
Nor should we despise the experience and observation of the 
Greco-Arabic School of practitioners regarding the uses of the 
indigenous drugs. Thus the Taleef Sheriff (which has been 
translated into English), is'an excellent work on therapeutics, 
and gives within a narrow compass the uses of some of the most 
important medicinal plants of this country. 
We should also take into consideration those drugs which 
are in much use amongst rustics and villagers, and of which 
no account is to be met with in the works of either the Hindu 
or Greco-Arabic school of practitioners. It is a pity that no 
attempt has yet been made to collect information from the villa- 
gers regarding the medicinal virtues of plants that grow around 
* Most of the above mentioned works, however, are out of print, and being 
rare, are hardly within the reach of the most of the members of medical pro- 
fession. 
