First of two volumes detailing a variety of plant species and their medicinal properties. The works contain 180 chromolithographic plates, originally drawn and hand-colored by the author. The illustrations depict the characteristic portions of each plant, and include detailed enlargements of each plant's fruits, seeds, or dissected floral organs when applicable.

The work's author, Charles Frederick Millspaugh (1854-1923), was an American physician and botanist. While practicing medicine in the early 1880s, Millspaugh developed a keen interest in plants. This interest led him to publish American Medicinal Plants in 1887 and later, to become a professor of botany at West Virginia University in 1891. By 1894, Millspaugh was appointed as the first curator of botany at the Field Museum in Chicago, a position he held until his death in 1923. From 1897 to 1923 he was also a professor of medical botany at the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and lectured on botany at the University of Chicago.

Digitization includes the work's front matter and plates.