ON PHARMACEUTICAL HERBARIA. 
543 
while the agreeable reminiscences called forth by an inspection of the plants 
gathered in years long passed, are such as may well repay the trouble of forming 
and preserving an herbarium. 
But it is not the formation of a general herbarium or even of an herbarium 
of British plants, interesting and valuable though they are, that I venture now 
to advocate. I wish rather to point out the advantage to the student of being 
able to consult a small collection of medicinal plants preserved in herbarium- 
form, and to draw attention to the ease with which such a collection may be 
formed. One of the regulations imposed by a paternal but despotic govern¬ 
ment on the continental apothecary is that he shall provide and maintain in 
good order for the use of his apprentices, an herbarium of medicinal plants. 
Let us draw a lesson from this. In the British Pharmacopoeia about 170 plants 
are enumerated as furnishing the vegetable Materia Medica prescribed in that 
work; and of this number more than 50 are either indigenous to or are cultivated 
in Great Britain. An herbarium comprising even four-fifths of this number 
would be no unimportant aid to the student who was “ reading up ’’ a subject 
so uninviting to most as Materia Medica. I would not however restrict my 
herbarium to the plants of the pharmacopoeia. There is a considerable number 
that are used in rustic medicine, some of which were held officinal by the 
London College of Physicians but a few years back. As instances of this, let 
me enumerate Woodsorrel, Sweet Flag, Garlick, Marsh Mallow, Asarabacca, 
Bistort, Bitter Cress, Lesser Centaury, Quince, Carrot, Black Hellebore, Ele¬ 
campane, Lettuce, Bay, Common Mallow, Horehound, Pennyroyal, Wormwood, 
Buckbean, Tormentilla, and Coltsfoot. To this number may be added with 
advantage certain plants which are interesting to the pharmaceutist from their 
liability to be confounded with others that are officinal, as Tyrethrum and 
Matricaria which may be mistaken for Chamomile, Fool’s Parsley supposed 
sometimes to do duty for Conium, Hawkbitand Wiamnus Frangula which it is 
said have been passed off for Dandelion and Buckthorn. 
As to exotic medicinal plants, the difficulty of obtaining specimens would, I 
must admit, be far greater and the pharmaceutical herbarium must inevitably 
contain many blanks. Still as the Pharmaceutical Society numbers over 40 
members resident in foreign countries, it would not, I believe, be impossible to 
interest some of them in procuring and forwarding to our secretary specimens 
for distribution of some of the commoner economic plants occurring in their 
respective districts. In this way our pharmaceutical herbariums might be en¬ 
riched with such tropical plants as the Clove, Cinnamon, Allspice, Cassia Fis¬ 
tula, Pareira Brava, Quassia, etc. 
One of the more complete herbaria of the character I have attempted to 
describe, ought to be preserved at Bloomsbury Square, and others in the rooms 
of the Branch Societies at Edinburgh, Liverpool, etc. ; but in addition I would 
suggest to those who feel or wish to feel interested in botany, to commence 
themselves the formation of an herbarium of medicinal plants, taking as a 
nucleus those commonest plants of our gardens, fields, hedge-rows and commons, 
the Cherry-Laurel, Lavender, Dandelion, Bittersweet, Elder, Foxglove, etc. 
It is unnecessary here to describe the simple operation of preparing botanical 
specimens (an operation for which a pharmaceutist has several facilities) , but 
a few words may be said on the best method of mounting them so as to render 
them at once convenient for reference, and as little liable as possible to sustain 
injury from handling and from the depredation of insects. In the first place it 
should be a rule that no specimen should be mounted unless previously brushed, 
over with an alcoholic solution of Corrosive Sublimate, a precaution against 
the ravages of a certain mischievous little beetle, extremely ready to prey on 
dried leaves. Specimens having been subjected to this operation, should be re¬ 
dried with slight pressure and are then ready to be fastened to the paper on 
