an average of 1,200 pages. The price is 2.20 roubles( about $ 2.50) a volume. There are 124,000 copies of each volume which means that the first seven volumes give us more than 8,600,000 copies. The set is aimed for general readers, students, teachers, agronomists, scientists, doctors, state organizations, Kolchoz, Sovchos, herb collectors, etc.
The books are difficult to obtain because as soon as they arrive all available stock goes direct to awaiting readers.
The millions of books on health and herbs in use by the army of scientists, researchers and writers is but a small amount compared to the legions of readers and practical businessmen connected with medical botanics. It is not quantity of books published, but the fact that our North American plants and our North American Folk Medicine has had all the attention and credit they deserve.
Publications are available for professions interested in chemical botanical facts, not opinions. Others are less technical for those who can read; can see; and appreciate plant life, sponsored by none other than from the original of origin— creation itself. Encouraging material from England, Germany and India, as well as from Russia, also followed after printing procedures were set. From all indications the subject under discussion holds world thoughts in steady and undisputed scientific attention.
In most countries primary research is no native flora, not just for abstract scientific knowledge, but for practical purposes of decorating, commercial, and medical powers. Foreign ambition is centred on flora of the American continent for comparison and uses.
Our wish with this modest contribution is to attract attention to our own native treasures which are analysed and admired in distant countries, but so neglected in our own.
CONCLUSION
The beneficial properties of herbs as medicines will often depend upon the greenness or ripeness of the plant. The time for cutting and digging is essential to the peak susceptibility of its known attributes. Whether it be summer, winter, spring or autumn, the timing must be in accord with the plant’ s protocol. For instance, Cascara, or Sacred Bark, after it has been stripped in the proper season from the tree and made into a powder or tincture is more valuable and effective with age. Nettle is a good food in its earliest stage of growth, but will prove unpleasant with age.
Another great essential of a plant which is to be selected for its medical qualities is its environment. If indigenous to the locality or country wherein it is found, it is the proper one to select. Plants that are introduced from other countries are lessened, or deprived, of their virtues, unless they meet in their new home all the essential conditions possessed in their native place.
It must be apparent to all that herbs are liable to suffer from soil, climate, etc., and from these conditions will vary the medical properties attributed to them. When giving a medical herb be informed as to its proper curative effect upon the system. A herb gathered at the correct time and prepared properly will secure restoration to a patient from disease to health.
There are two terms we use in the action of herbal medicine on the system, they are: Rational Therapeutics, which have a proven scientific course of action within the body, and Empirical Therapeutics, which travel the same circulatory system with unexplained, long established hidden talent. Both have a history of incalculable blessings, and we do not choose one over the other provided both are used intelligently. Many herbal ingredients have great value and strength. But in emergencies they require immediate professional supervision. It is not advisable to take any strong