Most plant societies or associations such as those which cover Great Britain are not so obviously dependent on one particular spring, but the plants composing them are associated in a very similar way. CHAPTER II ON SAVAGES, DOCTORS, AND PLANTS Savages knew Botany--First lady doctors and botanical excursions--True drugs and horrible ornaments--Hydrophobia cure--Cloves--Mustard--Ivy--Roses and Teeth--How to keep hair on--How to know if a patient will recover--Curious properties of a mushroom--The Scythian lamb--Quinine: history and use--Safflower--Romance of ipecacuanha--Wars of the spice trade--Cinnamon, dogwood, and indigo--Romance of pepper--Babylonian and Egyptian botanists--Chinese discoveries--Theophrastus--Medieval times--The first illustrated book--Numbers of plants known--Discoveries of painters and poets. If we look back to the time when all men and women were mere savages, living like the Esquimaux or the Australians of to-day, then it is certain that every person was much interested in plants. Nothing was so interesting as daily food, because no one was ever certain of even one good meal in the day. So that in those early times there was a very sound, well-grounded knowledge of roots, bulbs, and fruits. They knew all that were good to eat, all that could possibly be eaten in time of famine and starvation, and also every poisonous and unwholesome plant. Some savage genius must have discovered that certain plants were "good medicine"; that certain tree-barks helped to check fever, and that others were worth trying when people had successfully devoured more than they could comfortably digest. The life of a savage meant tremendous meals, followed by days of starvation; even now, when young children are fed on rice in India, a thread is tied round their waist, and, when this bursts, they are not allowed to eat any more. Very probably some of these early physicians were lady doctors usually of a certain age. Men were too busy with their hunting and warfare to have time to try experiments with drugs, to make concoctions of herbs all more or less disquieting and to find out if these were of any use. So that such medicine-men or witches gradually came to understand enough about poisons or fruits to make themselves respected and even feared. They would, no doubt, make botanical excursions in the forest, accompanied by their pupils, in order to point out the poisonous and useful drugs. It is worth noting, in passing, that this habit of botanical professors going on excursions with medical students has persisted down to our own times, probably without any break in the continuity.