268    INFLUENCE  OF  CULTIVATION  UPON  MEDICINAL  PLANTS.. 
ON  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CULTIVATION  UPON  MEDICINAL 
PLANTS. 
Some  correspondents  have  recently  expressed  to  us  their  be- 
lief, that  extracts  made  from  herbs  growing  wild  keep  better 
than  those  prepared  from  the  same  plants  in  a  cultivated  con- 
dition. As  this  is  a  point  of  great  interest,  and  one  which  has 
an  important  bearing  upon  the  preparation  of  medicinal  extracts, 
we  subjoin  the  following  translation  from  U  Union  Pharmaceu- 
tique,  of  a  Report  recently  presented  to  the  Imperial  Society 
of  Medicine  of  Toulouse,  On  the  influence  of  cultivation  upon 
Medicinal  Plants,  by  M.  Timbal-Lagrave. 
"  At  the  present  time,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  insist  upon 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  knowledge  of  botany,  and 
the  important  applications  of  such  knowledge  in  the  treatment 
of  disease.  Whilst  we  thus  admit  the  importance  of  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  medicinal  properties  of  plants,  we  must  acknow- 
ledge, however,  that  it  is  not  so  easy  to  ascertain  with  certainty 
under  what  condition  medicinal  plants  should  be  chosen  and 
collected.  Although  many  authors  have  written  treatises  on 
Therapeutics  and  Pharmacology,  we  are  far  from  knowing,  as 
yet,  the  principles  which  ought  to  be  acted  upon  in  the  choice 
and  collection  of  medicinal  plants.  The  greater  number  of 
writers  recommend  that  such  plants  should  be  collected  in  those 
places  where  they  grow  wild,  under  the  belief  that  if  they  are 
removed  from  their  natural  habitats,  they  will  but  rarely  find  in 
their  new  ones  those  conditions  which  are  necessary  for  their 
complete  development ;  and  that,  hence,  they  will  languish,  be- 
come sickly,  and  will  not  possess  in  the  same  degree  the  proper- 
ties which  they  had  in  their  natural  states,  and  the  medical 
practitioner  would  therefore  have  to  deal  with  doubtful  and 
variable  agents,  in  which  he  could  place  no  confidence. 
"  It  must  not  be  imagined  that  this  decision  in  favor  of  wild 
plants  has  been  arrived  at  hastily,  or  without  proofs  :  on  the 
contrary,  it  rests  on  certain  scientific  data,  which  the  labors  of 
modern  physiologists  have  confirmed.  Thus,  if  we  cast  an  atten- 
tive glance  upon  the  distribution  of  plants  over  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  wTe  shall  be  struck  at  once  with  their  number  and 
variety;   and  if  we  search  for  the  cause  of  such  variety 
