85 
this art in the greatest estimation, and it is to be lamented 
that although we have increased the variety of colours, we 
are yet unable to give them that durability which they are 
known to have once possessed, ^tnd which forms their prin¬ 
cipal value. The mode of making the Tyrian dye or ancient 
royal purple, has been long lost. But if the cloth coloured 
by it could have been preserved, and what is told of it be 
true, the stain might have been as lasting as the story of its 
discovery. 
The medicinal qualities of plants is an important and in- , 
teresting subject of investigation, and it is surprising that 
the spirit of research and discovery, so remarkable in our 
countrymen, should not have been more operative on this 
subject. The flower which is now heedlessly trampled un¬ 
der foot, may possess virtues for the relief of many maladies, 
which, from our ignorance of its properties, we are unable 
to cure :—And when it is recollected that plants which dif¬ 
fer widely from each other in habits of life, and in internal 
structure, have been found to produce the same results,* it 
may be confidently expected that a period will arrive when 
our own country will furnish us, with most of the medicines 
which are now imported. Already many plants which were 
noticed as desiderata for American cultivation, andf which 
twenty years ago were esteemed exotics, are now found 
growing in our fields and forests. The new and rapid im¬ 
provements which are making in the Materia Medica, flatter 
us with a hope that Pharmacy will soon banish from her list, 
most of her mineral applications, those banes, too often, of 
the health and constitution, which like the Vampyres of Java, 
eventually destroy the blood, while they lull, in present se¬ 
curity, the unsuspecting victim. 
In this place I shall mention a few native medicinal plants, 
some of which have not been publicly noticed. 
The Aristolochia Serpentaria, or Virginia Snake Root, to- 
* Homberg produced the same principle from Cabbage as from 
Hemlock. Edin. Rev. No. 13. 
f American Philos. Trans, vol. p. 325 to 380. 
F 
I 
