N. ORD—-COMPOSITZ:. 
Tribe.—SENECIOWIDEZ, 
GENUS.—ARTEMISIA > LINN, 
SEX. SYST.—POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA, 
88 
ABSINTHIUM.* 
WORM WOOD. 
SYN.—ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM, LINN.; ABSINTHIUM VULGARE, PARK.: 
A. OFFICINALE, LAM. 
COM. NAMES.—WORMWOOD; (FR.) ABSINTHE; (GER.) WERMUTH. 
A TINCTURE OF THE LEAVES AND FLOWERS OF ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM, LINN. 
Description.—This bitter, aromatic, frutescent perennial, attains a growth of 
2 to 4 feet. Stem stiff, almost ligneous at the base and paniculately branched ; 
branches of two kinds, some fertile, others barren. Leaves alternate, 2 to 3 pin- 
nately parted, finely pubescent with close silky hairs, the uppermost lanceolate, 
entire; /eafiets oblong or lanceolate, obtuse and entire, sparingly toothed or 
incised, J/zflorescence in long, leafy panicles; heads numerous, small, heteroga- 
mous, on slender nodding pedicles ; zzvolucre canescent; bracts of two kinds, 1 to 
2 loose, narrow, herbaceous ones, and several that are roundish and scarious; 
florets many, all discoid, the central hermaphrodite, the marginal pistillate. Coro/- 
fas tubular glabrous; 4mé nearly entire in the marginal florets, 5-toothed, and 
spreading in the central. Sty/e 2-cleft, in the marginal florets bilamellar, with the 
inner surfaces stigmatic, in the central bifurcated with only the tips stigmatose, 
fringed or fimbriate. Axthers tipped with an acuminate appendage, not inflexed, 
Receptacle flattish, beset with long woolly hairs; akenes obovoid or oblong; pappus. 
none, 
History and Habitat.—This European synonym of bitterness has escaped 
from gardens in many places in North America, especially, however, in Nova 
Scotia, New England, and at Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay. It blossoms with us 
from the latter part of July to October. 
Wormwood has been used in medicine from ancient times. Dioscorides and 
Pliny considered it to be a stomachic tonic, and anthelmintic. Boerhaave, Linnzus, 
Haller, and all of the earlier writers speak of its good effects in many disorders, 
such as, intermittents, hypochondriasis, gout, scurvy, calculus, and hepatic and 
splenic obstructions. Bergius, in recounting its virtues, says it is “antiputredi- 
nosa, antacida, anthelmintica, resolens, tonica, et stomachia.” The famous “ Port- 
* Artemisia, the Greek Diana, goddess of chastity, as the plant was thought to bring on early puberty. Pliny says 
the name is in honor of Artemisia, queen of Mausolus, king of Caria. 
T "Avior, apsinthion, the classical name of many species of the genus. 
