This work may be regarded as deceptive Index to the Flora, and a handbook to the drugs and economic products in use by native practitioners and others in the province and neighbouring countries.
It may be mentioned that the idea did not originate wholly with the author; but besides the Want experienced by him of a Guide to the known Flora, when making a collection of drugs for the Kurrachee Museum, there was a general conviction among those interested in economic botany, that some work comprehending the subject within a moderate compass was a desideratum; 1st” as supplying descriptions of known plants for the enquirer; and 2ndly, facilitating by such descriptions the work of those interested in medical and economic botany, as it was dearly evident there were numerous vegetable products in common use in the province, the sources of which were either uncertain or unknown for want of a scientific Guide. |
