5" 
is 
compofed of five petals, which are 
hed at the apex : the filaments are five, and furniftied with fimpl 
unequ 
inwards 
ntherae : the germen 
g 
ovate, and placed below the 
the two ftyles are minute, and terminated by fimple ftigmata : the 
fruit is egg-fhaped, or oblong, ftriated : the feeds are two 
flat 
fide 
d ftriated on the other 
biong 
This plant, which is the only fpecies of Cuminum yet discovered, 
of Egypt and Ethiopia, and is cultivated in the iflands of 
Sicily and Malta, from whence we are fupplied with the feed 
" Cumin feeds have a bitterifh warm tafte, accompanied with 
aromatic fl 
but not agreeable. They g 
out 
their fmell by infufion in water, but very 
diftillation with water, a pungent oil arifes, of 
g 
fl 
like that of the feeds : the decod 
sat part of 
r tafte : in 
ungrateful 
infpiflated, leaves a 
of the 
ftron 
weakly roughifh bitterifh extracl:. Re&ified fpirit takes up the whole 
virtues of the cummin by infufion, and leaves them nearly uninjured 
evaporation. 
Cummin has been thought to be the Kvpmv of Diofcorides 
The 
feeds, which rank as one of the four 
g 
hot feeds, contain a 
ge proportion of effential oil, and are therefore fuppofed to poffefs 
carminative and ftomachic power, equal, if not 
thofe of the umbellife 
clafs 
They 
a 
not fuperior to moft of 
generally preferred to 
indolent tumours, and 
name both to a plafter and cataplafm in the Pharmacopoeias. 
It was cultivated in England in 1594 by Sir Hugh Plat., See Plat's Garden of 
the other feeds for external ufe in difcuffing 
Eckn. part. ti. p. 134. Hort. Kew 
b Lewis. Mat. Med. p, 268 
Ctillen. M. M. vol. ii. p. 1 59 
o 
AMYRIS GILEADENSIS. 
