Tht Red Camomile. 233 



tive humanity. Some details of a plant of so certain a future as 

 that the red camomile, will be. without doubt, acceptable lo our 

 readers. 



In Transcau.sia, its country, this ph\nt bears also the name of 

 the Fcr.nan camomile, the Jlea-Jdller, the flea-wort. It forms a little 

 ehrub with perennial roots, branched twelve to fifteen inches high, 

 bearing- many flowers, at first a dee]) red, afterwards a clear or 

 rosy red, and an inch and a half in diameter, (the size of the flow- 

 ers will also cause this jdant to be cultivated as an ornament in 

 our g-ardcns :) the stalks dry up after the ripening of the seeds, 

 but the roots are i)erennial, and for some years may be multiplied 

 by division. Freshly gathered, the flowers are not very odorous, 

 but dried they acquii-e an odor so strong and penetrating that it 

 kills all the insects and all the vermin, of which, until now, no 

 certain agent of destruction has been found. The red camomile 

 can bear 20 degrees Centigrade of frost, a temperature to which 

 it is often submitted on the Caucasian mountains and on the plains 

 elevated from 4,500 to 6,500 feet above the sea level. Although 

 it inhabits virgin soil, it is easily brought into cultivation in gar- 

 dens, and, since its energetic properties have been recognized, it 

 is cultivated in a large way in different parts of Southern Russia. 

 One very remarkable fact is, that the knowledge of the secret of 

 the manufacture of the red camomile powder for the destruction of 

 fleas, &c., only dates back, even in Caucasia, about ten years, 

 while the employment of this strong powder was known in re- 

 gions far distant from Circassia. It seems' that an Armenian mer- 

 chant, named Sumbitofi", traveling in the south of Asia, observed 

 that the inhabitants sprinkled themselves with a powder to pre- 

 vent the stings of insects. This powder was nothing else than 

 that made of the flowers of the red camomile. Returned to his 

 country, our Armenian told his son of the discovery, and taught 

 him to recognize the plant. The son became poor by reverses of 

 fortune, but bethought himself of his father's secret ; he set him- 

 self then to make this powder, and retired with very large profits 

 from this trade. In 1818, he sold a pood (about twenty kilo- 

 grammesj of camomile powder, at twenty-five roubles, (near one 

 hundred francs ;) and although the secret had been published, and 

 every one knew the preparation of this powder, more than twenty 

 villages in the district of Alexandropol were actually given up to 

 the cultivation of the red camomile. The flowering of the Pyreth- 



