while in another they are found to be quite ineffectual;
which difference has been owing to having gathered;
roots, leaves, &c. of a very different plant from the real
one fo highly efteemed in fome particular fpot. This
error is the ealier to commit, as it often happens that the
names of plants growing in the northern parts of Europe
are often given to feveral of thofe of the fouth, though
the plants themfelves are very different, not having been
properly collated. As a proof of this I will adduce only
two inftanees: The Radix Bugloffi in Italy is taken from a
very different plant from our own (which is the Anchu-
fa officinalis}, a plant which I have found in but few
places of the fouth o f Europe, and which is in general
rare. On the contrary, the fpecies mentioned by Profef-
for Retzius in the firft fafcieulus o f his Obfervations,
p. 12, under the name of Anchufa Italica, is there full
as common as the A. officinalis with us, and is accordingly
there made ufe of; and though it differs very
much from ours, yet it is confidered by moil of the bo-
tanifts of the fouth of Europe as the lame plant with the
above northern one, which they have never feen, and of
courfe know not how to diftinguilh. In the garden of
an hofpital at Genoa, the Symphytum tuberofum was cultivated
for the ufe of the apothecaries inftead of the officinale,
which is the true Confolida major of the Materia
Medica.
I pafs over many limilar examples of different plants,
being conlidered as the lame in different places, even
though
though much more diffimilar than the abovementioned.
But if luch miftakes are committed by thofe from whom
a folid and exaCt knowledge of the proper diftinCtions of
plants might be expected, what may we not apprehend to
be the cafe, when the gathering of them is committed to
the care of perfons ftill lefs able to diftinguilh luch productions?
Their knowledge o f plants confifts in accidental
diftinftions-, and is often confined to their being
accuftomêd to find them in fome particular place or
other; a circumltance which is often capable of giving
two different plants a limilar afpeCt. As this happens
every day, it is unncceffary to infill upon it. We need only
fearch the heaps which are brought to the apothecaries5
lhops, in order to difcover plants of very different Ipecies
from thofe prefcribed by phyftcians, How greatly would
the knowledge of medicine be confirmed, and how many
excellent remedies, grounded on the experience of all
ages, would be in our pofleflion, if our anceftors had
handed down to us as lure charaCteriftics of the plants they
made ufe of, as the praifes o f their qualities ! Our Materia
Medica would not then have been filled with a
number of ufelefs articles; and the conjectures of latter
ages about the medicines recommended by the ancients
would have been fpared, while the knowledge of efficacious
medicines would have been rendered permanent
and certain for the benefit of mankind. After thé
lapfe of centuries, mankind have employed all their in-
duftry to find out the plants mentioned by Diofcorides
and others of the ancients, and at length have difcovered
A 2 that