\ 



828 UMBELLIFER^. 



other countries, and is frequently cultivated in gardens. It succeeds in 

 Norway as far north as Throndhjem. 



Dill, under the Hindustani name of Sitva or Soyah, is largely grown 



in various ports of India, where the plant though of but a few months' 



duration, grows to a height of 2 to 3 feet. On account of a slight 



peculiarity in the fruit, the Indian plant was regarded by Koxhurgh 



and De Candolle as a distinct species, and called Anethum Sowa, but 



it possesses no botanical characters to warrant its separation from A. 

 gmveohns. 



History— Dill is commonly regarded to be the "Av)]6ov of Diosco- 

 rides, the Anethum of Palladius and other ancient writers, as well as of 

 the New Testament.^ In Greece the name "Xv^Oov is at present 

 applied 2 to a plant of very similar appearance, Carum Ridolfia Benth. 

 et Hook (Anethum segetum L.). By the later Greeks, the tenn 



Avr]6ov was also used for dill.^ 



Dill,_as well as coriander, fennel, cumin, and ammi, was in frequent 

 requisition in Britain in Anglo-Saxon times.^ The name is derived 

 according to Prior ^ from the old Norse word dilla, to lull, in allusion 

 to the reputed carminative properties of the drug. However this may 



e Til ^^^ *^® ^°^^ occurring in the 10th century in the Vocabulary 

 of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury." The words dill and till, un- 

 doubtedly meaning this drug, were also used in Germany and Switzer- 

 land as early as a.d. 1000. 



Description-The fruit, which has the characters usual to Umbel- 

 ^2/erce, IS ot ovoid form, much compressed dorsally, surrounded with a 

 broad flattened margin. The mericarps about r\ of an inch wide, are 

 mostly separate ; they are provided with 5 equidistant, filiform ridges, 

 ot which the two lateral lose themselves in the paler, broad, thin 

 maigin. lhe_ three others are sharply keeled; the darkest space 

 between them is occupied by a vitta and two occur on the commissure. 

 .fr\Jl! ^^^'^^ ."^f .u& the mericarps are narrower and more convex, the 

 ie.Snff r ^'^?''^ .^^'^ P^l^' ^nd the border less winged. In otl^«;' 



IrP^n c^L 1 f '''^' ^'P^ ^^^^ of Europe. The odour and taste of diU 

 are agreeably aromatic. 



r.„n.^'''''°/^°?j'' Characters-The pericarp is formed of a small 



row ff • ^1^'^'^ '^"^' ^^i^h i^ the inner layer are of a brown 

 colour the ridges consist as usual of a strong fibro-vascular bundle. 



Comp 



Dill fruit yields from 3 to 4 per cent, of 



•^ered «««« bv the'Fn^ TV* ^"^ ^'" '''" * Leechdoms, &c. . edited by Cockaj-J - 



Wicklif (nZdo^J } translators from 1864-66, -see especially Jlerbartum Apu 



= Heldreich Xl'^^'^'^'^^y *r^°«l^ted. 219.235.237.281.293. „, ,.70 

 (1862) 40. ' ^"'~^/«'^e« Grlcchcnhnds » Popular Names of BrUl^h Pl^fl'ft 



^^Langkavel,i?o<anii!-r7 «,,••, ^. " Folume of Vocabularies, editeci 



Berlin, isfifi ho''*'''^-'P''^^'nGrlechen, Wright. 1fi.=57 .m 



