The history of economic botany is briefly discussed. Economic plants are defined as those plants utilized either directly or indirectly for the benefit of Man. Indirect usage includes the needs of Man's livestock and the maintenance of the environment; the benefits may be domestic, commercial, environmental, or aesthetic. The relationships between economic botany, agriculture, forestry, horticulture, and ethnobotany are discussed as well as the regional approaches to economic botany around the world and by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in particular. © 1990 The New York Botanical Garden.
