COMPOSITE. 45 



glabrous, or with distant scattered hairs, especially on the petioles 

 and veins of the leaves. 



Common Tansy. 



French, Tanaisie Commune. German, Eainfam. 



The Tansy is a common plant in many parts of the country, being generally found 

 here and there on the borders of fields and by roadsides, where the soil is chalky 

 or sandy. 



The herb is bitter, aromatic, and tonic, and its flavour is not unpleasant. It is 

 occasionally used in the country as a domestic medicine in intermittent fevers, and 

 also as a vermifuge, the leaves being generally made into an infusion which is taken as 

 tea. The active properties of the j)Iant reside in the essential oil, which gives it its 

 strong and peculiar odour ; but it likewise contains a bitter resinous matter, and an 

 acid called tarcacetic add. The essential oil is obtained from the herb by distillation ; it 

 has been used as a vermifuge, but in one case with fatal results. Boerhaave held the 

 plant in great esteem, aud recommended it as a spice, saying, " this balsamic plant may 

 supply the place of nutmegs and cinnamon, for I believe that Asia does not supply a 

 plant of greater fragrance than the Tansy." It is very little cultivated at j)resent, 

 though its leaves are sometimes used in omelettes, and also for colouring other dishes. 

 It was formerly eaten much in Lent, as the representative of the bitter herbs com- 

 manded to be eaten with the Paschal lamb ; and Tansy puddings and Tansy cakes, 

 made from the young leaves mixed with eggs, are still in favour with some people. 

 Gerarde alludes to the use of it in cookery in his day ; he says — "' In the spring time 

 are made with the leaves hereof newly sprung up, and with egs, cakes, or Tansies, which 

 be pleasant in taste and good for the stomacke. For if any bad humours cleave 

 thereunto, it doth perfectly concoct them and carry them oflT. The root preserved with 

 hony or sugar is an especiall thing against the gout, if every day for a certaiue space, 

 a reasonable quantity thereof be eaten fasting." It was likewise considered a specific 

 in dropsy. Dr. Threlkeld relates a case of a soldier at ]\Iontpellier, who was cured of 

 an obstinate dropsy by the decoction of Tansy alone. The same writer accounts for 

 the habit of eating Tansy-cakes during Lent, on the ground that they " dissipate the 

 flatulencies occasioned by the idle conceit of eating fish and pulse for forty days ; but," 

 says he, " I have seen several victims to superstition, who have broken an hale consti- 

 tution by that presumptuous fasting, so that neither Tansy nor steel could repair it." 



Sub-Genus III.— TRIPLEUROSPEUMUM. C. S. Schultz. 



Clinanth hemispherical in fruit. Elorets of the ray white, 

 ligulate. Achenes all similar, trigonous or sub-tetragonous, with 

 3 corky ribs on the inner face, transversely rugose between the 

 ribs, with 2 large glandular fovore or pits at the apox on the 

 back face, crowucd by a membranous border all round. 



