Dangerous Garden by David Stuart, Frances Lincoln, £25, ISBN 0711222657 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
IT IS salutary to be reminded that until the dawn of the 20th century, just about the only medicines available to treat disease or cure wounds, calm passions or excite them, were extracted from plants. For thousands of years before then, the hit or miss system of trying the effects of such potions had results that couldn’t be predicted.
Plants could kill or cure or, usually, do neither. Even today the most popular and valuable drug, with possibly undiscovered potential, is just one step away from…
