Customer Reviews

Botany and Healing: Medicinal Plants of New Jersey and the Region

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Cecil Still's compilation of 112 medicinal plants that can be found in New Jersey is an interesting identifier with a historical look at these plants.
While no specific information is provided on growing or preparing these individual plants, Still does provide botanical descriptions, illustrations and common names for identification purposes.
Most interesting are the short historical sketches of how these plants cured, soothed, or intoxicated. The majority of historical information is based on Amerindian uses but, when appropriate, Chinese medicine is also discussed.
The introduction and section titled Medicinal Plants and their Preparation provides basic and mostly historical information on how to prepare plants for medicinal use but is in no way a guide and, in fact, Still provides many cautionary warnings both in the introduction as well as within plant descriptions, particularly when the plant has been determined to be poisonous or deadly upon consumption.
Botany and Healing is an interesting reference guide worth a look but it will not provide much practical knowledge for the herb or medicinal plant gardener.

I live in Indian Mills, a small town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens -- not far from where James Still was born. I really enjoyed reading this book. Anyone interested in herbal medicine who lives in Northeast U.S. should buy a copy and keep it for reference.