157. ULMUS campestris. THE ELM.--We have a number of varieties of the
Elm; the most esteemed is that with the smooth bark. The timber has been
long in request for water-pipes, and for boards, which are converted
into various uses in domestic oeconomy.
158. ULMUS montana. BROAD-LEAVED ELM.--This has not been considered of
so great value as the common sort, but it is of much more free growth;
and I have been informed that in the West of England the timber has been
found to be good and lasting.
* * * * *
SECT. VII.--PLANTS USEFUL IN MEDICINE.
The initial letters in this class distinguish the Pharmacopoeia in which
each plant is inserted.
"By the wise and unchangeable laws of Nature established by a Being
infinitely good and infinitely powerful,--not only man, the lord of the
creation, 'fair form who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heaven,'
but every subordinate being becomes subject to decay and death: pain and
disease, the inheritance of mortality, usually accelerate his
dissolution. To combat these, to alleviate when it has not the power to
avert, Medicine, honoured art! comes to our assistance.
"It will not be expected that we should here give a history of this
ancient practice, or draw a parallel betwixt the success of former
physicians and those of modern times: all that concerns us to remark is,
that the ancients were infinitely more indebted to the vegetable kingdom
for the materials of their art than the moderns.
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