DILL. 137 



the mericarps being narrower and more convex than in the 

 European variety. The Abyssinian plant is a rather small form. 



The fruit (erroneously called the seed) yields on distillation with 

 water a fragrant essential oil. The average yield from German 

 seed is 3-8 per cent. ; from Eussian, 4 per cent. : from East Indian, 

 2 per cent., and from Eoumanian, 3 J per cent. The average sp. gr. 

 of the oil is 0-910 at 15° C. Its opdcal rotation is + 70° to 80,° 

 but that of East Indian is only +41° 30'. According to the 

 investigations of Xietzki,* Dill oil yields on fractional distillation, 

 10 per cent, of a hydrocarbon, CjoHj^c boiling at 155°-160° ; 

 60 per cent, of a hydrocarbon of the same coniposition boiling at 

 170°-175,° and 30 per cent of Carvol, C\o H^^ 0, identical with 

 the carvol of caraway oil, although not quite so strongly 

 dextrogyre. The odour of the portion boiling between 170°-175° 

 is described as in no way resembling that of dill, but exceedingly 

 like that of oil of mace. The characteristic odour of dill was, how- 

 ever, immediately restored by the addition of carvol. 



Indian dill fruit yields an oil of different and less pleasant odour 

 and different chemical constitution ; it is also heavier than that 

 produced in other countries. 



Peucedanum grande, C. B. Clarke. This plant is an 

 inhabitant of the hills of Western India. Its fruit is known in 

 the Hindee and Bombay vernacular as Di'ikii. Dr. Dymock statesf 

 that the fruit of this plant has been adopted in India as a 

 substitute for the Daucus seeds of the ancients, which were obtained 

 from a species of Athamanta growing in Crete. This adoption was 

 probably due to the early visits of Greek travellers and traders to 

 Thana, and to the subsequent resort to the same port of the 

 Mohamedans early in the 14th century. The plant is common on 

 the hills of the Concan, and was probably brought for sale to 

 Thana in those days, as it still is at the present time. In Eoyle's 

 Materia Medica, Falconer is quoted as describing Duku as a fruit 

 resembling that of Asafoetida, and as probably derived from some 

 species of Ferula ; this is just such a fruit. Other umbelliferous 

 fruits are not unfrequently substituted for this drug. 



The height of the plant is from three to seven feet, having very 

 much the appearance of a garden parsnip which has run to seed ; 



* Archiv. der Pliarm. [3], iv., p. 370. 

 Pharmacographia Indica, ii., p. 126. 



