MEDICINAL PLANTS. Those plants of which some part or product is used hi .raedicine, are Very numerous, and belong to the most widely different orders. In soine orders, particular propertie-s are prevalent; other medicinal species are exceptional as to .their properties in the orders to which they belong. Important properties and products are somethnes characteristic of a particular very liinited group of species, as in the case of the cinch-oncts. Many medicinal plants are merely used by the people of the countries in which they grow, others—known as officinal a place accorded them in pharmacopmias and in the practice of educated medical practitioners. Many plants, however, are in high repute among the native physicians of India, which have not yet found a place in any western pharmacopoeia, although a few of the most valuable have .recently been introduced to notice in Europe. Of the plants which have been rejected from the pharmacopoeias, but retain their place in rustic practice, some are really useful, and would be held in greater esteem if there were not preferable medicines of similar quality; others have owed their reputation merely to ridiculous fancies. Some
.medicinal plants are always g-athered where they grow wild, others a-re cultivited in order to have them in sufficient abundance. This branch of gardening.is carried onto a greater •extent at Mitcham, near London, than in any other part of Britain. A great boon has very- recently been conferred on mankind—so recently that it has scarcely yet begun to be enjoyed—in the introduction of cinclona(q.v.) trees into India, Ceylon, and Java, where their cultivation has been commenced with every prospect of Success, a continued supply of Peruvian bark and of quinine, their increased abundance, and a diminution of their price, being thus secured.
Among- the most valuable books on medicinal plants are Hayne's Getreue Dantedung atul Beschreibung der in Arzeneikunde gebrauchlichen Gewiickse (4 Vols. Berlin, 1805- 46); Nees von Esenbeck, Weihe, Walter, und Funke, Vollstandige Sammlung officineller Pgranzen (3 vols. Dusseldorf, 1821-33).—Pereira's Materia Medica is also of very high cexcellence.