ANISE-SEED BALM. 137 



used as a sweetmeat, when candied, by the confectioners. 

 The Laplanders extol the utility of this herb for coughs and 

 other disorders of the chest, but in this country it is seldom 

 employed for that purpose, as many other simples surpass it 

 in aromatic and carminative powers. 



ANISE-SEED. 



Pimpinellcb Anisum. — Boucage, Fr. — Anis, Ger. 



A NATIVE of Egypt and some other eastern countries. The 

 seeds are annually imported from Malta and Spain. The 

 plant is annual, and propagated by sowing the seed in a light, 

 dry soil, in Spring. Anise-seeds have a warm, aromatic smell, 

 and a pleasant, warm taste, accompanied with a degree of 

 sweetness ; they have been useful in many complaints, but 

 none more so than in flatulent colics and obstructions of the 

 breast, for diarrhoeas, and for strengthening the tone of the 

 stomach in general. 



BALM. 



Melissa officinalis. — Melisse, Fr. — Melisse, Ger. 



So called from the Greek word signifying honeij^ because 

 of the abundant and excellent honey of its flowers, for which 

 bees greatly frequent it. The Garden Balm is a native of the 

 mountains of Geneva, Savoy, and Italy. It is perennial, and 

 may be readily propagated by parting the roots in Spring or Au- 

 tumn, and planting them in beds of common garden mould. 

 The herb, in its recent state, has a weak, aromatic taste, and a 

 pleasant smell, somewhat of the lemon kind. Balm was for- 

 merly esteemed of great use in all complaints supposed to pro- 

 ceed from a disordered state of the nervous system. As tea, 



