he — 
; : - eet BE 2 : 
3 : x c 
ARTEMISIA ABROTANUM. ORD. III. Composite. 53 
style is longer than the stamina, and furnished with a cleft reflected 
stigma: the seeds are naked and solitary. 
Southernwood is a native of France, Spain, and Italy: it was 
cultivated here by Gerard, and its odour renders it so generally 
acceptable, that there are few gardens in which this plant is not to 
be found. Although it bears the cold of our winters very well, it 
so rarely flowers in Britain, that a specimen proper for delineation 
cannot without difficulty be obtained. 
The leaves and tops of Southernwood, have a strong, and to most 
people an agreeable smell: its taste is pungent, bitter, and some- 
what nauseous. These qualities are completely extracted by spirit- 
uous menstrua, the herb communicating to the spirit a beautiful 
green colour. Water extracts its virtues less perfectly, and the 
infusion is of alight brown colour. In distillation with water this 
plant affords but a small quantity of essential oil; for from sixteen 
pounds of the fresh leaves scarcely three drams of this oil could be 
obtained.* : 
The Abrotanum mas & femina were regarded by the ancients” 
as medicines of considerable efficacy; the latter is referred to 
Santolina Chamz-Cyparissus, Zin. (Common Lavender Cotton); 
the former is the species now under consideration, and has been 
esteemed to be stomachic, carminative, and deobstruent; it is 
supposed to stimulate the whole system, more particularly that of 
the uterus. But though it still retains a place both in the London 
and Edinburgh pharmacopceias, it is now rarely used, unless in the 
way of fomentation. 
* Lewis, M. M. p. 4. * 
» See Theophrast. [ist. L.1. ¢. 15..p. 44. Dioscor. L. 3. c.. 29. p. 184. Gelen, 
Simpl. L. 6. p. 40. Pliny, L. 21. ¢. 21. 
No. 5.. ae 
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