ee ORD. III. Composite. 
ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM. COMMON WORMWOOD. 
SYNONYMA. Absinthium vulgare. Pharm. Lond. & Edinb. 
Absinthium ponticum seu Romanum officinarum, seu Dioscoridis. 
Bauh. Pin. p. 138. Absinthium latifolium sive Ponticum. Gerard. 
Emac. p. 1096. Absinthium vulgare majus. J. Bauh. Hist. iit. 
p. 168. Absinthium vulgare. Park. Theat. p. 98. Raii Hist. 
p. 366. Synop. p. 188. Hal. Stirp. Helv. n. 124. Artemisia 
Absinthium. Huds. Ang. p. 358. Withering. Bot. Arrang. p. 
891. Smith. 864. 
Sp. Ch. A. foliis compositis multifidis, floribus subglobosis pendulis: 
receptaculo villoso. 
THE root is perennial, long, and fibrous: the stalks are round, 
channelled, somewhat downy, ligneous, rising two or three feet 
in height, and sending off several round branches: the leaves are 
compound, divided into many bluntish segments in a pinnated 
order, on the under side downy, of a whitish or pale green colour, 
and silky softness: the flowers are-of a brownish yellow colour, 
pendent, and placed in numerous spikes, which stand alternately 
upon the branches: the calyx is composed of many oval scales: the 
florets are hermaphrodite and male, placed upon a villous recep- 
tacle, and in the structure of their different parts nearly resembling 
those described of the preceding species of Artemisia. This plant 
is a native of Britain, and grows about rubbish, rocks, and sides of 
roads. * 
The leaves of Wormwood have a strong disagreeable smell ; 
their taste is nauseous, and so intensely bitter as to be proverbial, 
The flowers are more aromatic and less bitter than the leaves, and 
the roots discover an aromatic warmth without any bitterness.* 
* This plant communicates a bitter taste to the flesh and milk of cows and 
sheep which feed on it. Lin. Flor. Suec. n. 735. The milk of a woman, who 
took the extract, became extremely bitter, Act. Hafn. vol. 2. p. 165. 
