TANACETUM VULGARE. 
above purposes, the curled which is generally preferred for the 
second, and the variegated which is chiefly used for ornament. 
Tansy may be propagated in spring or autumn by rooted slips, 
or by dividing the roots into several sets, plant them in any 
compartment of the kitchen or physic eunisigs from twelve to 
eighteen inches asunder. The plant continues for several years, 
producing abundant tufts of leaves annually. As they run up 
in strong stalks in summer, these should be cut down to encour- 
age a production of young leaves low on the stem. 
Tanacetum Vuneare is a perrenial herbaceous plant, the root 
is creeping, sending up stiff, erect stems, about two feet in 
height, leafy, obscurely hexagonal and striated, with alternate 
leaves, doubly pinnatifid, acutely cleft, somewhat downy on the 
under side, cased at the base, and embracing the stem. The 
flowers are in terminal, dense, corymbs of a bright yellow color, 
and flattish. The leaflets of the calyx are obtuse, with a dry 
scaly margin. ‘The florets are numerods, those of the disc her- 
maphrodite and five-cleft, those of the margin female and 
triid. The seeds are small, uniform, inversely pyramidal, 
pentagonal, ribbed, of an ash color, and crowned with a narrow 
marginate, membranaceous pappus. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
Tansy has a strong disagreeable, peculiar, fragrant odor, and 
a warm acrid bitterish taste, somewhat resembling that of cam- 
phor. The leaves and flowers are used ; they yield their peculiar 
qualities to water and alcohol, and in distillation with water 
they afford a greenish-yellow essential oil, which has i in perfec- 
tion the odor and taste of the plant. This oil (oleum tanaceti) i is 
yellow, sometimes green, and its specific gravity is 0.952. The 
leaves and flowers contain also a peculiar acid which has been 
called tanacetic, volatile-oil, bitter resin, fatty oil, wax, &c. They 
have been analyzed by Fromherz, and by Peschier, and the con- 
stituents are as already mentioned. Their medical properties 
are owing to the oil and bitter resin. The tanacetic acid is crys- 
tallizable. It precipitates lyme, baryta, and oxide of lead. With 
a solution of acetate of copper it causes a precipitate, 
Tansy produces the usual effects of the aromatic bitter tonics, 
which by continued administration in debilitated and relaxed 
conditions of the body, increase gradually the tenacity of the — 
== and thereby TR Ae, fibres more tense and 
