Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Catalogue of the Medicinal Plants, Indigenous and Exotic, Growing in the State of New-York: With a Brief Account of Their Composition and Medical Properties
The whole number of ?owering plants hitherto discovered in 11115 state, according to Prof. Torrey, is about 1450 species. Ofthese about 1200 are herbaceous, and 150 ornamental. We have 250 species Of woody plants, including eighty that attain the size of trees. There are also about 150 species of plants that are known to possess medicinal properties. Of exotics, now naturalized, we have 160 species, many of which have probably been introduced with grain, and other agricul tural products, from abroad. Of such, are nearly all the weeds which prove so troublesome to the farmer. To the same source we are also indebted for many of our useful species, as most of our different grasses, which spring up spontaneously on every hand.
Of Ferns we have about sixty species belonging to the Flora of' the state, some of which are medicinal. The Male Fem does not grow within the limits of the state. Our Masses, Liverworts, Lichens, and Sea-weeds, have as yet been but very imperfectly investigated though many of them would undoubtedly furnish valuable resources to the me. Dical man. When these have become more fully known, we shall no longer send to Iceland, Ireland, and the East Indies, for mucilaginous mosses, and other remedies of this class. Our Fungi are almost innu merable, constituting, probably, at least 3000 species, but few ofwhich have been thoroughly studied. Here is a wide field for such as wish to distinguish themselves by making discoveries in a term incognita. At present our knowledge scarcely suffices to enable us to distinguish such as are poisonous from those which are edible and nutritious. Where is the genius, which is to illustrate this dark region? Where the man, whose name is to be connected with this branch of natural science, in all future time?
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