322 
London  Botanic  Gardens. 
A.m.  ..'orr.  Pharm. 
July,  1906. 
Of  Philip  Miller's  "  Short  Introduction "  to  Botany  nothing 
further  need  be  said,  but  a  few  words  must  be  spared  for  Curtis's 
"  Linnseus's  System  of  Botany "  and  his  t(  Lectures  on  Botany." 
Both  of  these  were  published  after  the  author  had  severed  his  con- 
nection with  the  Chelsea  Physic  Garden  in  order  to  found  a  school 
of  his  own  in  his  garden  at  Lambeth,  and  they  are  chiefly  remark, 
able  for  the  beautifully  executed  and  accurate  engravings  which  they 
contain.  These  are  printed  from  copper  plates,  and  are  designed  to 
illustrate  the  terms  used  in  Botany  and  the  divisions  of  the  Linnean 
System,  by  means  of  representations  of  the  living  plants. 
Lindley's  u  Flora  Medica ;  a  botanical  account  of  all  the  more 
important  Plants  used  in  Medicine,  in  different  parts  of  the  World  " 
(London,  1838)  is  a  modern  text-book  in  every  sense  of  the  word, 
and  it  could  very  advantageously  do  duty  at  the  present  day,  with 
but  little  alteration.  The  generic  and  specific  characters  are  very 
fully,  albeit  concisely,  given,  and  the  medicinal  uses  of  the  plants 
are  admirably  summarized.  Indeed,  in  looking  through  the  book 
one  is  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  additions  which  have  been  made 
since  then  to  our  knowledge  of  the  subject  are  relatively  unimport- 
ant. We  have,  it  is  true,  located  the  active  constituents  of  many 
plants,  but  Lindley  does  not  deal  with  plant  analysis,  and  the 
therapeutical  properties  of  the  drugs  which  we  use  were  known  in 
1838,  although  their  active  principles  may  not  have  been  isolated 
nor  the  mechanism  of  their  action  on  living  tissues  determined. 
The  Flora  Medica,  however,  did  not  appeal  to  the  class  for  which  it 
was  intended.  This  was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  there  was  too 
much  botany  in  it  for  the  average  medical  student,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  botanist  capable  of  appreciating  Lindley's  work 
would  naturally  prefer  to  consult  more  comprehensive  works  on 
Systematic  Botany.  But  Lindley's  labors  were  not  entirely  in 
vain,  for  the  information  which  he  had  so  laboriously  compiled  on 
the  medicinal  uses  of  plants  was  utilized  by  the  medical  botanists 
who  contributed  to  the  li  Treasury  of  Botany." 
"  The  Gardeners  Dictionary  "  by  Philip  Miller  was  first  published 
in  1724.  The  first  edition  in  folio  appeared  in  173 1,  and  the  last 
edition,  in  four  folio  half- volumes,  was  issued  in  1807  under  the 
editorship  of  Thomas  Martyn,  the  then  Regius  Professor  of  Botany 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Martyn's  preface  contains  a  detailed 
account  of  all  the  various  editions  of  Miller's  magnum  opus,  and  to 
