442 
a 
The feeds of Foeniculum dulce are admitted of the Materia Medic, 
in both Pharmacopoeias, and the root of Fceniculum vulgare alfo in 
that of the Edinburgh College;* but both thefe plants being confidered 
as varieties of the Anethum Foeniculum, they are -comprifed in the 
figure here prefixed. 
Fennel is found to grow wild in many parts of England, afFectinp- 
Iry chalky foils ; but that which is cultivated in our gardens is more 
the feeds, which are 
fragrant, of a fwee 
3 
ter fit 
ivour, ana, excepting 
brought from the fouth of Europe/commonly ufed both for medicinal 
and culinary purpofes. 
u 
The feeds have an aromatic fmell, and a warm fweetifh tafte. 
Water extracts the virtue 
of thefe feeds very imperfectly by infu- 
fion, but carries it off totally in evaporation : after repeated infufion, 
they retain part of their aromatic warmth, and the liquors are much 
lefs agreeable than the feeds in fubftance ; after boiling for fome time, 
the feeds prove entirely infipid, and the decoction, infpiflated to the 
confidence of an extract, is very nearly fo. By diftillation they 
impregnate water with their flavour : a gallon receives a ftrong im- 
pregnation from a pound of the feeds. A large portion of eflential 
oil feparates in the diftillation ; — in fmell refembling the fennel, in 
tafte mild and fweetifh like the oil of anifeeds, and like it alfo con- 
gealing, by a flight cold, into a white butyraceous mafs. Thefe feeds 
contain likewife a confiderable quantity of a grofs oil of the expreffed 
kind, which, when freed from the eflential oil, difcovers no particular 
fmell or tafte. This oil is extracted, along with the aromatic matter 
iof the fennel, by digeftion in rectified fpirit, but feparates and rifes 
:to the furface upon infpiflating the filtured tincture. The fpirit, 
ently diftilled off, has very little of the flavour of the feeds ; the oily 
matter retains a part both of their tafte and fmell ; but much the 
greateft part remains concentrated in the extract." b 
,* " By Foeniculum dulce, (Dr. Cullen fays) we mean feeds i 
climate j we allow however the roots to be taken, as they moft 
the plants growing in our gardens." M. M. vol. iu p. 158. 
fouthern 
:ntly may 
a « 
k 
plus illi 
Gallia 
Ital 
■P 
See Labat, fay age en Efpagne & 
k 
» 
,m planta junior. 
Bergius 9 M.M< 
b 
M, M. />. 303 
5- P 
70 
• 
The 
