Die Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches

Abstract

THE vast importance of an accurate knowledge of the raw materials of vegetable origin must be so patent to everyone as to give rise to the thought that the number of text-books on the subject must necessarily be very large; From the vast and ever-increasing colonies of this country huge quantities of material of the most varied description, and almost incalculable value, are annually poured into its markets. Hundreds of different kinds of timbers, fibres, gums, resins, dye-stuffs, tanning materials, &c., are brought hither to be devoted to various technical uses or to be distributed to other countries. Very frequently, too, specimens of drugs and other products are sent from abroad accompanied by queries as to their quality, uses and value; such queries are generally addressed to brokers or to the sender's private friends. It is therefore evidently a matter of primary importance that these products should be investigated and classified, their uses examined into, and the means by which their identity and purity may be established should be determined and recorded. A lexicon or handbook might thus be compiled which would be of inestimable worth to those who deal in or use such vegetable products, arid might be the means of introducing valuable substances, or even of establishing new industries. It is in England of all countries where one would expect to find properly staffed institutions where such investigations would be carried out, and where men would be trained for such work; in England, unfortunately, this study;is much neglected, although the conditions are more favourable than elsewhere. Museums with large collections of economic products exist, but they remain for the most part a mass of unsifted and undigested material. An effort in the right direction has, it is true, been made in the Imperial Institute, which, properly encouraged and extended, may yet yield valuable results.

Die Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches.

By Dr. Julius Wiesner. Second Edition. Ten parts. In two volumes. Pp. xi + 795 and vi + 1070. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1900–1903.) Price 3l.