BOTANICAL  AND  PHARMACOLOGICAL  INQUIRIES.  49 
BOTANICAL   AND  PHARMACOLOGICAL   INQUIRIES  AND 
DESIDERATA* 
.  By  Sir  William  J.  Hooker,  K.  H.,  &c. 
Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens  of  Kew : 
ASSISTED  BY 
Daniel  Hanbury,  Esq.,  F.  L.  S.,  &c. 
Botany  is  a  science  which  requires  to  be  studied  at  home  as 
well  as  in  the  field.  For  this  reason  it  is  highly  desirable  that 
persons  visiting  a  foreign  land  should  not  only  obtain  informa- 
tion on  the  spot  respecting  its  plants  and  their  uses  and  proper- 
ties, but  that  they  should  transmit  to  this  country  ample  collec- 
tions of  well-preserved  specimens.  These  may  consist  of  living 
plants  or  of  pressed  and  dried  botanical  specimens  and  of  fruits 
and  seeds,  also  of  various  vegetable  products.  By  the  last  term 
we  mean  such  objects  as  medicinal  substances  (barks,  roots, 
gums,  resins,  and  the  like,)  dye-stuffs,  useful  fibres,  interesting 
woods,  oil-seeds,  with  the  oil  prepared  from  them,  farinaceous 
substances, — in  fine,  whatever  of  vegetable  origin  deserves  atten- 
tion on  account  of  its  utility  to  man. 
Let  us  therefore  offer  in  the  first  place  a  few  plain  instruc- 
tions for  collecting  and  transporting  plants  in  foreign  lands. 
Living  Plants  for  Cultivation. 
Plants  for  cultivation  in  our  European  gardens  may  be  intro- 
duced either  as  seeds,  bulbs,  tubers,  cuttings,  or  rooted  plants. 
Seeds,  bulbs,  and  tubers  are  easily  collected,  and  as  easily 
[*To  promote  the  acquisition  of  information  by  travellers,  the  article 
"  Botany,"  extracted  from  the  Admiralty  Manual  of  Scientific  Inquiry,  3d 
edition,  1859,  has  been  published  in  pamphlet  form,  comprising  instruc- 
tions for  the  collection  and  preservation  of  specimens,  together  with  notes 
and  inquiries  regarding  botanical  materia  medica  subjects.  A  copy  of  this 
has  been  sent  to  us  by  Mr.  Hanbury,  with  the  request  to  publish  such 
parts  of  it  as  will  facilitate  the  object  in  view.  There  are  several  gentle- 
men inthe  Medical  corps  of  the  U.  S.Navy,  and  among  its  officers,  of  whom 
Dr.  Ruschenberger  and  Capt.  Page  are  examples,  who  have  availed  them- 
selves of  the  excellent  opportunities  sometimes  afforded  during  the  cruizing 
voyages  of  the  national  vessels,  in  prosecuting  inquiries  of  this  kind,  and 
we  hope  that  these  inquiries  will  attract  the  attention  of  some  of  those 
gentlemen. — Editor  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.] 
4 
