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REPORT

ON THE

. MEDICAL FLORA OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

BY

J. G. COOPER, M.D.

1857.

REPORT ON THE MEDICAL FLORA OF WASHINGTON

TERRITORY.

HAVING been appointed by the Association at its meeting of 1856 "A special Committee, to report upon the Flora of Oregon and Washington Territories," I have the honor to submit the few remarks following upon that subject.

Conceiving that the object of the report should be principally to give some information on the medical flora of those territories, I have now limited myself to a selection of such species as appear worthy of trial, either as substitutes for useful medicines, or for supposed valuable properties of their own. Full lists of the vegetable productions of those countries would be of but little interest to the profession generally, and would swell the report beyond reasonable bounds. I collected myself about 500 species of plants in Washington Territory alone, and in both territories there are probably to be found three times that number. Of these, not more than 300 are found on each side of the continent, though the range of almost every species differs from all the others. It will be perceived, however, by the botanist, and even by the more careless observer, that there is a large series of plants which are (what are now called "representative species," that is, species closely resembling plants of other parts of the world, but presenting constant and marked differences) sufficient to indicate that they sprung from a distinct origin. This fact of "representation" of natural forms is not confined to plants, but is, perhaps, even more distinctly observed in the higher classes of created beings, and is beginning to form a very important part of the study of natural history, especially in relation to the theories upon the centres of creation, and the distinct origin of similar forms of life.

It is no less interesting to the pharmaceutist and to the physician,

for, as a general fact, it is found that the closer the external resem blance in species, the more similar is their medicinal virtue, and vice versa.

Many instances of the use of such closely allied plants in place of each other might be adduced, and will occur to all acquainted with the botany of our country. As instances, I will mention the substitution of cassia Marilandica for the senna of Africa and Asia, the produce of several nearly allied plants, and of the bark of our oaks for those of Europe.

We have besides a large number of plants much less closely allied, but still possessing similar properties. This resemblance sometimes extends through all the members of one genus, as for instance, ranunculus, sometimes throughout the more comprehensive groups of sub-orders, orders, and even further, including several orders, more or less similar externally, in a group having similar medical properties. As these facts are fully discussed in works on medical botany, I will not now take up the time of the Association by considering them.

But it is equally well known that species, very closely allied, though not, perhaps, strictly representative of each other, have very different medical properties, and also that the same plant varies in this respect under different circumstances of soil, climate, and its state of nature or cultivation.

I may here remark that most of the plants considered as identical on our two coasts, vary considerably in appearance, some even presenting greater differences than certain plants generally admitted as distinct species; but in these cases the rule by which botanists are guided is the occurrence of intermediate forms in the middle parts of the continent, which so gradually combine the two extremes that they may be rationally considered to have sprung from one origin, and to have become altered in growth by external influences. I have alluded to instances of this in conium maculatum and artemisia vulgaris, plants distributed throughout the northern temperate zone.

We cannot, then, in any instance take it for granted without trial that one plant can be substituted for another in medicine because it resembles it, however closely; but we may derive important assistance in conducting our trials of a new plant from a knowledge that it is a variety, a representative, an allied species, or even that it is more distantly connected, so as to be included in the

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