1 84 
Editorial. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1900. 
in  the  destruction  of  any  one  class  of  individuals,  there  is  not 
only  one  class,  but  a  number  of  classes,  concerned.    So  that,  in  the 
purpose  or  lack  of  purpose,  not  only  are  certain  plants  destroyed, 
but  those  dependent  upon  them  or  in  near  relation  to  them  are  also 
affected. 
The  modern  agriculturist  recognizes  this  interdependence  of 
certain  plants  in  his  rotation  of  crops,"  but  it  appears  that  there 
is  even  a  still  greater  application  of  the  principle  as  carried  out 
among  living  plants  in  their  native  haunts.  The  remarks  of  George 
W.  Sloan,  President  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  in 
1880,  are  still  worthy  of  consideration  by  those  concerned  primarily 
in  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants,  when  he  said  it  is  "a  question 
whether  or  not  we  are  losing  or  at  least  diminishing  in  the  produc- 
tion of  many  of  our  native  medicinal  plants,  and  if,  in  fact,  the 
destruction  of  our  forests  will  not  lose  to  us  many  of  the  medicinal 
herbs  and  shrubs  which  we  have  grown  accustomed  to  regard  as 
inexhaustible,  simply  because  they  were  indigenous." 
These  remarks  are  suggestive  of  the  importance  of  preserving  our 
primitive  forests  from  another  point  of  view,  namely,  that  of  pre- 
serving the  food  and  medicinal  plants  found  growing  in  them,  or 
protected  by  them  as  it  were,  which  question  has  not  met  with  the 
consideration  that  it  deserves. 
Mr.  Sloan1  observes  that  around  Indianapolis,  "a  few  years  ago, 
senega,  Hydrastis  canadensis,  Cypripedium  pubescens  and  several 
other  articles  were  freely  offered,  while  ginseng  [Panax  quinqiiefolia) 
was  in  profuse  abundance,  being  gathered  and  shipped  by  the  ton. 
Of  these,  with  the  exception  of  the  latter,  I  have  scarcely  had  a 
sample  offered  in  nearly  twenty  years.  The  locality  was  heavily 
timbered  and  a  dense  undergrowth  prevented  to  a  great  extent  the 
pasturage  of  the  land.  After  the  undergrowth  was  cleared,  even  if 
the  timber  was  left  standing,  the  soil  became  more  dry.  The  pas- 
turing  of  the  land  by  the  various  domestic  animals  has  also  con- 
tributed  towards  the  eradication  of  small  plants  and  shrubs.  Another 
writer,  Irom  Missouri,  says  the  principal  medicinal  plants  that  have 
become  scarce  from  the  clearing  of  the  country  are  ginseng,  senega, 
serpentaria,  spigelia,  Arum  triphyllum,  cypripedium  and  hydrastis. 
1  Proc.  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1880,  p.  502. 
destruction  of  trees  or  other 
