arranged treatise on the medicinal value of common English plants
of the garden and of the field. It is a vindication, by reference to chemical analysis and modern medical practice, of the old " herbals ; " a modern "herbal," in fact, with the nonsense, and, unfortunately, the beautiful drawings of plants, omitted. Though the "green man "—the wandering herb-collector—only survives
as an inn-sign, there is a growing feeling that modern methods can detect and extract many useful cures from common plants, in which healing substances are stored by the secret working of Nature's laboratory. Mr. Fernie has not erased from thelist a certain number of plants whose reputation still rests on slender evidence, and some are not only non-medicinal, but dangerous poisons, such as the yew, if we except one form of tincture made from the young shoots of the tree. But the great number of the common vegetables and plants to which healing as well as nourishing properties can be ascribed, will strike every one who reads this interesting book. As an example of an old medicinal favourite, we may take the elder flowers and berries, which produce two of the stock remedies of the country still-room, in the form of elder- berry wine and elder-flower water. The elder produces " viburnie acid," which induces sweating, and is specially curative of bronchial inflammation. Parsley, the curative powers of which were so curiously exaggerated by the Greeks, yields "apiol," a nervous sedative ; watercress, once in great repute as an anti- scorbutic, is now proved to be especially rich in "anti-scorbutic salts ; " and the buttercup, whose acrid juice will cause an eruption resembling the skin-disease known as "shingles," yields a tincture which, when taken in small doses, is considered by Dr. Fernie to be an effective cure for that complaint. Of recently introduced plants, the tomato is so extensively used in America to cure biliousness that a chemical extract from the fruit has almost superseded calomeL The balance between the botanical, chemical, medical, and historical history of the plants is well kept, and the book is one of more general interest than is suggested by its title.
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