INTRODUCTORY. 
103 
the pharmacopoeial titles of drugs, a number of ver- 
nacular names and synonyms are employed in describ- 
ing them. 
The official or pharmacopoeial definition of drugs is 
given in the leading paragraph of the different phar- 
macopoeias under each drug and includes the botanical 
origin as well as the name of the part of the plant yield- 
ing the drug; and in some cases other special features 
or requirements are given, as the habitat of the plant 
yielding the drug, the time of collection, mode of 
preservation, etc. 
Plants which yield drugs may grow wild, as is 
most usually the case, or they may be cultivated, as 
those yielding anthemis, cannabis indica and the 
solanaceous leaves. Plants growing in their native 
countries are said to be indigenous to those regions, as 
Stillingia sylvatica of the Southern United States ; 
Aconitum Napellus, of the mountainous regions of 
Europe, etc. Plants are said to be naturalized when 
they grow in a foreign land or in another locality 
than their native home. Some of these may have 
been distributed by natural agencies, or they may 
have escaped from cultivation, or they may have been 
introduced with the seeds of cultivated plants or with 
the ballast of ships. 
The term commercial origin applies solely to the drugs 
themselves, and indicates their commercial source ; 
that is, either the country where the plant yielding 
the drug is grown, or the port from which the drug is 
sent into the marts of the world. English hyoscya- 
mus leaves are gathered from plants grown in Eng- 
land; Canton rhubarb is the product of plants grown in 
various parts of China, but shipped by way of Canton. 
The time of the collection of vegetable drugs is of prime 
importance, and while we may not be able to make 
