136 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



but in any case the word dates back to the tenth century, being 

 found in the vocabulary of Alfric, Archbishop of Canterbury.* It 

 is the Anise of St. Matthew, xxiii. 23. 



The annual umbelliferous plant producing this aromatic fruit 

 has for many years been known liotanically as Anethum 

 graveolens, Lin., but the generic name Anethum is now sup- 

 pressed by Bentham and Hooker,-]- and this plant, the sole 

 representative of the genus Anethum is included in the geuus 

 Peucedanum, and is now styled Peucedanum graveolens, Benth.J: 

 It is very indigenous to Central and Southern Europe, but 

 is found abundantly in many countries, extending from Spain 

 to the Caucasus and Persia, and southward into Egypt and Abys- 

 sinia. In England, it forms a plant somewhat resembling Fennel, 

 of about two feet in height, with a smooth, but finely striated stem. 

 The leaves are tripinnate, with fringe-like segments and very 

 broad sheaths. It is distinguished amongst umbelliferous plants 

 by the absence of involucre to the umbel, by the absence of the 

 limb, or upper part of the calyx, by the fruit being flattened from 

 back to front, provided with a membranous border or wing, and 

 with six ridges, three on each half of the fruits. In each of the 

 furrows between these ridges, is placed a broad channel or vitta, 

 filled with volatile oil. 



In Europe the seeds are sown in the autumn in light soil, and 

 the young plants are thinned out in the early spring, so as to leave 

 10 inches between each plant. 



Under the Hindustanee name Siwa or Sdyah it is cultivated in 

 various parts of India, and in that climate rapidly attains a height 

 of about three feet. By reason of a slight peculiarity of the fruit, 

 the Indian plant was considered by Eoxburgh§ and De Candolle|| 

 to be a distinct species, Anethum Sowa, but it has no botanical 

 characteristic sufficiently pronounced to alienate it from the 

 ordinary Anethum graveolens.^ The plant cultivated in India 

 differs only in its rather longer and more narrowly winged fruit, 



* Volume of Vocabularies, edn. Wright, 1857, p. 30. 



t Genera plantarum, i., p. 919. 



X Oliver, Flor. Trop. Africa, iii., p. 19. 



§ Flor. Ind., ii., p. 96. 



11 Prodr., iv., p. 186. 



II Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plant., t. 132. 



