WORM. 



WOUNDWORT. 



country. When, indeed, we cast our eyes over j purposes : Common wormwood (A. ab- 

 sinthium} is a native of almost every part of 



a list of the men of science and literature of all 

 kinds that adorned this age, especially in 

 chemistry and in botany, the two sciences per- 

 haps of all others the most important to agri- 

 culture, we need not be surprised to find how 

 rapidly it was rising from being a mere art of 

 empiricism ; and when we note how rapidly 

 the thirst for foreign research was prevalent, 

 we can easily perceive how improved modes 

 of" culture and new plants were acquired to 

 agriculture. Cavendish, but especially Ra- 

 leigh, by their visits for lucre as well as fame 

 to the Spanish settlements of America in 

 1580-8, led the way in a path which Lancaster 

 and Raymond followed in 1791, and laid the 

 foundation of that anomalous copartnership of 

 commercial monarchs, the East India Com- 

 pany. Annual fleets now returned from the 

 east and west, laden with the curiosities of both 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms; of these 

 the potato, tobacco, and tea need alone be in- 

 stanced ; and although the views of men were 

 not yet liberal enough to prompt them to 

 voyages of discovery, with an unmixed desire 

 of extending the field of science, or an enlarged 

 wish to benefit mankind, yet new plants, in 

 common with other hitherto strange natural 

 products, attracted their attention, and, though 

 at first imported as novelties, soon became by 

 degrees to be desired and sought for as the 

 luxuries and necessaries of life. (Quart. Jour. 

 Jlgr. vol. xii. p. 460.) 



WORM. See CUT-WORM, EARTH-WORM, 

 WIRE-WORM, &c. 



WORM-SEED (Chenopodium'). See GOOSE- 

 FOOT. 



WORMS, INTESTINAL. A troublesome 

 sort of vermin found in the intestines of horses 

 and other animals. There is, perhaps, nothing 

 so destructive to the health and appearance of 

 the horse as worms. When they have obtain- 

 ed a settlement in the intestines, neither the 

 labour of the groom nor the liberality of the 

 master will prove of any avail towards im- 

 proving the animal's condition : for as fast as 

 the chyle is formed from the aliment, which 

 ought to be converted into blood, these nume- 

 rous guests first satiate their craving appe- 

 tites, and leave but a scanty supply for the 

 exhausted system of the horse, so that a double 

 allowance of corn would not preserve a healthy 

 state; because the digestive organs cannot ex- 

 ert an extraordinary power for any length of 

 time, without producing such a state of debility 

 as to render them incapable of performing 

 afterwards their proper office. 



In these animals, the most common kinds 

 are the following: 1. Bots, which many young 

 horses are subject to in the spring ; 2. Those 

 that resemble earth-worms, and which, by phy- 

 sicians, are called lumbrici; 3. Those that are 

 about the size of the largest sewing-needles, 

 with flat heads, called ascarides; 4. That species 

 of worm called tama, or tape-worm. See BOTS, 

 FLUKE-WORM, &c. 



WORMWOOD (Artemisia, so named in ho- 

 nour of Artemisia, wife of King Mausolus, or 

 of Diana Ag<r,u#). There are four perennial- 

 rooted bitter aromatic herbs included under 

 this name, and cultivated solely for medicinal 

 1160 



Europe, and in England is found by road-sides 

 on heaps of rubbish, &c. It is an erect under 

 shrub, with hoary tri-pinnatisert leaves. The 

 flowers in small, globose, nodding, racemose 

 panicles. The same remarks apply to the 

 drooping sea-wormwood (A. maritima), which 

 is found on salt marshes and the sea-coast. 

 Roman wormwood (A. pontica) is a native of 

 Italy; and Santonicum or Tartarian worm- 

 wood (A. Santonica), which is a mere variety 

 of A. ,naritima, of Persia and Siberia. The 

 soil best suited to the growth of these plants is 

 one that is dry, light, and poor, otherwise they 

 become luxuriant, and are defective in their 

 medicinal qualities, as well as in their power 

 to withstand the rigour of the winter. Any 

 situation will suit the common and the sea- 

 wormwoods that is open and unconfined ; but 

 the exotic species require to be sheltered from 

 the severe aspects. In a severe winter, the 

 Tartarian can only be preserved under a frame. 

 The sea-wormwood seldom flourishes from the 

 want of a genial soil; the application of salt 

 would undoubtedly be beneficial. 



They are all propagated by seed, as well as 

 slips and cuttings, the first of which may be 

 sown in March or April, and the latter planted 

 during June, July, and beginning of August. 

 The seed is sown thinly broadcast, and when 

 the plants arrive at a height of 2 or 3 inches, 

 are weeded and thinned to 6 inches asunder; 

 and those taken away pricked out at a similar 

 distance, water being given if the weather is 

 at all dry. The slips and cuttings are planted 

 in a shady border, about 8 inches apart, and 

 water given regularly every evening until they 

 have taken root. They are all to be trans- 

 planted finally early in the following spring, by 

 whichever mode they are raised, setting the 

 plants at last 18 inches apart. See MUGWORT, 

 and SOUTHERNWOOD. 



WOUNDWORT (Stachys, from, stachys, a 

 spike, alluding to the mode of flowering). A 

 genus of rather weedy-looking plants, hardly 

 worth cultivating for ornament. They all 

 succeed in common garden soil. . The peren- 

 nial kinds are easily increased by dividing the 

 roots in spring or autumn. The seeds of the 

 annual kinds should be sown in spring, in the 

 open border. As a vulnerary these plants have 

 no power. There are five indigenous species: 

 the hedge woundwort (S. sylvatica) ; the ambi- 

 guous woundwort ( ambigua) ; the marsh 

 woundwort (S. palustris) ; the downy wound- 

 wort (S. gernmmta) ; and the corn wound- 

 wort (S. arvensis). The marsh woundwort 

 has a fleshy root, creeping extensively; throw- 

 ing out in autumn a number of tuberous 

 shoots, which render it, in low, wet ground, 

 very difficult of extirpation. This, therefore, 

 should be attempted in summer before these 

 knobs are produced, when the flowers are 

 appearing. 



Several species of woundwort, or hedge- 

 nettle, are found in the United States. One, 

 called S. sylvatica, is found on the banks of the 

 Ohio, on the skirts of thickets, giving out the 

 same fetid odour as the European species. 

 The flowers are, however, paler. (Nuttall.') 



