artlessly compounded of seeds and roots by a Lady
Monmouth, or a Countess of Arundel, as in the Stuart and Tudor
times. Our Herbal Simples are fairly entitled at last to independent
promotion from the shelves of the amateur still-room, from [xi]
the rustic ventures of the village grandam, and from the shallow
practices of self styled botanical doctors in the back streets of our
cities.

"I do remember an apothecary,--
And hereabouts he dwells,--whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
_Culling of Simples_; meagre were his looks;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
Were thinly scattered to make up a show."
_Romeo and Juliet_, Act V. Sc. 1.

Chemically assured, therefore, of the sterling curative powers
which our Herbal Simples possess, and anxious to expound them
with a competent pen, the present author approaches his task with
a zealous purpose, taking as his pattern, from the _Comus_ of
Milton:--

"A certain shepherd lad
Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled
In every virtuous plant, and healing herb;
He would beg me sing;
Which, when I did, he on the tender grass
Would sit, and hearken even to constancy;
And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
And show me _Simples_, of a thousand names,
Telling their strange, and vigorous faculties."

Shakespeare said, three centuries ago, "throw physic to the dogs."
But prior to him, one Doctor Key, self styled Caius, had written in
the Latin [xii] tongue (_tempore_ Henry VIII.), a Medical History
of the British Canine Race. His book became popular, though
abounding in false concords; insomuch that from then until now
medical classics have been held by scholars in poor repute for
grammar, and sound construction. Notwithstanding which risk,
many a passage is quoted here of ancient Herbal lore in the past
tongues of Greece, Rome; and the Gauls. It is fondly hoped that
the apt lines thus borrowed from old faultless sources will escape
reproach for a defective modern rendering in Dog Latin, Mongrel
Greek, or the "French of Stratford