INTRODUCTION. 
7 
And in these days of utility, when a thing is nothing it 
not useful, we must remind our readers that the vegetable 
and floral world holds in it the secret of health to a greater 
degree, tve believe, than is yet dreamt of in our philo¬ 
sophy. They make the air we breathe pure and life- 
giving. It is a known fact that Lavender and many other 
flowers supply ozone to the atmosphere; the humble 
Lichen was one of the ingredients in the dye of imperial 
purple, for which Tyre and Sidon were famous; and the 
search for it brought Phoenician commerce to the Irish 
shores in the days of Ptolemy. Another Lichen, the 
Rocella tinctoria, afforded the first dye for British broad 
cloths. The Mosses shared in this utility. 
The Dandelion affords the Taraxacum, a valuable 
medicine. The tubers called “ Lords and ladies,” dear to 
babyhood, furnish a species of arrowroot. The tubers 
of the Orchis afford a similar preparation caked salep, 
a favourite posset with our great-grandmothers. 
The Rock Samphire bestows a pickle on our tables. 
The Red rose leaf is an admirable tonic; the Lily leaf 
heals a cut. Chamomile is a tonic. Cowslip affords a 
wine and a pudding, besides an infant’s ball; the Lesser 
Celandine is still used in medicine for the relief of a 
painful disease; and who is ignorant of the blessed 
soothing powers of the Poppy and Henbane? Greek 
mythology has left a floral record ; and beautiful blos¬ 
soms are also memorials of our country’s past: the Mis¬ 
tletoe, Vervain, and St. John’s Wort recal Druidic rites 
of ancient Britain. Julius Caesar has recorded the beauty 
of our hedge roses; the grandest dynasty of our kings was 
named from a plant (the Broom, or Plantagenista) ; York 
and Lancaster fought under a white and red rose. The 
•banished Henry Bolingbroke had previously adopted as 
