PROSPECTUS. The American plants now proven and incorporated in the Homceopathic Materia Medica, have become not only numerous, but of great promise as therapeutic agents; and the fact that the greater part of them are not officinal in the United States Pharmacopeia, has led the author to place them before his profession, in such a manner that their distinguishing characteristics may become known to all who wish to thoroughly understand the agents they use in the cure of diseased conditions. Most of these plants grow within the daily ride of country practitioners and should be well known to them, in order that they may make fresh tinctures for their own use, when necessary to avoid delay. The author has in every case drawn and colored the plants represented in this work, by his ozvn hand, from the specimens as they stood in the soil; making mathematically accurate drawings, and avoiding the misrepresentations of wilted individuals, or too highly colored fancy pictures. The work contains one hundred and eighty colored illustrations, and complete text, of all the proven plants indigenous and naturalized in the United States; arranged generically according to the numerical order of the plates. A glossary of botanical terms, and complete inde.x, together with a carefully arranged bibliography, are given in the appendix.

P R E F A C E In preparing tor the use ol students of our materia medica, this systematic account of American proven plants, I have inchided only such as may be found in that district of North America in which most of the Homoeopathic physicians reside. That many of the plants here described are not purely American is evident, yet all of them are true representatives of the tinctures used in the provings noted: such plants as the Chinese Ailanhis: the Asiatic yEscidus Hippocastanuni: the European Ejipliorbia Lathyns and many others, have received much of their value from provings of individuals growing here. Of the plants represented, i 28 are truly indigenous; 23 are fully naturalized; 22 are escapes from gardens; 6 are cultivated; and one only Is too rare to be of much value to the pharmacist. As regards their location, i 1 7 are generally common throughout the northern portion of the United States; 27 abound in the Eastern and Atlantic States only; 14 in the Northern States only; 6 in the Southern States: S in the central belt; i only to be found west of the Mississippi; and 7 are local. The work has occupied over five years in its publication, and the order in which the plates are numbered gives no idea of time when the plant itself was gathered and its text written. This was determined by m)- ability to locate the plant. It will be necessary to remember this, as many plants have been proven, and much more discovered concerning those represented since the work began, and the individuals were described. Each plant and its accompanying text should be looked upon as an article by itself written in the light of the time; the author has, however, as fully as was in his power, searched all important references at his command, and hopes that he has left out nothing that would increase the value of the work in the light in which it is written. The following explanation ot the arrangement and objects of the work is deemed necessary to its completeness: First, the natural order under which the genus falls is given in prominent type, and, should the order be a large one, the tribe then follows to give a better idea of its place; then the genus is mentioned in black-face type, together with the name of the scientist who formed it; to the genus, wherever possible, is appended a foot-note, showing the derivation of the name; and, lastly, in this department, is given the old, or sexual, arrangement according to Linnseus. All of this is considered essential, as it is conceded that plants ol like botanical, and therefore chemical, nature, have a similar action, yiving- a class of what we may term generic symptoms, though each has its special {specific) symptoms tliat characterize it. It is for this reason that the plants here treated of are arranged as above; for, if alphabetically arranged, the work would have lost at least onehalf its value.