A.m.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
April,  1900.  J 
Editorial. 
183 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  we  will  be  as  dependent  upon 
the  agriculturist  for  timber  and  medicinal  plants  as  we  are  to-day 
for  many  of  the  food  products  yielded  by  plants.  The  importance 
of  the  preservation  of  forest  trees  is  becoming  more  and  more 
apparent  in  the  legislation,  both  State  and  National,  which  is  being 
effected  concerning  it.  However  varied  the  causes  which  have 
tended  to  a  destruction  of  the  wooded  areas  in  the  United  States, 
in  some  cases  amounting  to  one-sixth  of  the  total  area,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  training  of  men  fitting  themselves  to  arrest  this  devas- 
tation and  assist  in  the  cultivation  of  useful  trees  is  but  beginning. 
No  one  can  say  how  many  useful  trees  will  have  been  entirely  exter- 
minated, and  no  one  can  prophesy  how  long  a  time  will  be  required 
before  the  work  about  to  be  started  will  yield  profitable  returns. 
While  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  more  useful  plants  and 
animals,  for  food  purposes,  have  been  preserved,  still,  even  this  is 
open  to  question,  as  we  know  that  cultivation  has  been  an  im- 
portant factor  tending  towards  the  preservation  of  existing  species 
in  the  plant  and  the  animal  kingdoms. 
There  is  more  or  less  mutual  dependence  among  plants,  and  it  is 
very  seldom  that  a  plant  community  is  composed  of  a  single  species. 
Generally  we  find  a  number  of  species  growing  together,  each  con- 
tributing to  the  welfare  of  the  other.  Some  perennials  provide 
shade  for  some  of  the  annuals;  some  produce  mechanical  sup- 
ports, as  in  the  climbing  plants  ;  some  are  dependent  upon  others 
for  either  producing  soil  (as  in  marsh  plants)  or  enriching  it  (as  in 
the  plants  of  Leguminosae) ;  some  are  parasitic  (as  in  the  Loran- 
thaceae) ;  others  are  saprophytic  (as  in  the  Orobanchacese),  and  still 
others  have  a  symbiotic  relationship,  as  was  pointed  out  in  a  pre- 
vious editorial  in  this  Journal  (1900,  p.  42). 
The  ecological  relationship  of  plants  and  animals  is  only  now 
beginning  to  be  studied  as  a  distinct  branch  of  science.  Some 
failures  in  the  transplanting  and  cultivating  of  plants  may  be 
directly  attributed  to  lack  of  knowledge  of  not  only  general  cli- 
matic and  soil  conditions,  but  more  especially  of  what  may  be 
their  biological  relationship  due  to  environment.  If  there  is,  then, 
this  mutual  beneficial  relationship  between  certain  plants,  then, 
