CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS. 719 



syrupy substance which is the ester of certain unidentified acids, 

 and on saponification yields the alcohol pyrethrol which crystal- 

 lizes in fine needles. The acids combined in the ester pyrethron 

 do not give crystalline salts. 



WORMWOOD or Absinthium consists of the dried leaves and 

 flowering tops of Artemisia Absinthium, a perennial, somewhat 

 woody, branching herb, indigenous to Europe and Northern 

 Africa, cultivated in New York, Michigan, Nebraska and Wis- 

 consin and naturalized in the United States from plants that have 

 escaped from cultivation. The leaves are grayish-green, gland- 

 ular-hairy, I- to 3-pinnately divided, the segments being obovate, 

 entire, or lobed ; the flowers are yellowish-green, the heads being 

 about 4 mm. broad and occurring in raceme-like panicles ; the 

 torus is hemispherical and the involucre consists of several series 

 of linear bracts, the inner being scale-like ; the florets are all 

 tubular, the outer ones sometimes being neutral. The herb is 

 aromatic and very bitter. 



The fresh drug contains about 0.5 per cent, of a VOLATILE OIL 

 which is of a dark green or blue color, has a bitter, persistent taste 

 but not the pleasant odor of the plant, and consists of d-thujone 

 (absinthol), thujyl alcohol free and combined with acetic, iso- 

 valerianic and palmitic acids, phellandrene and cadinene. The 

 other constituents oi the drug include a bitter glucosidal principle, 

 ABSINTHIIN, which forms white prisms and yields on hydrolysis 

 a volatile oil ; a resin ; starch ; tannin ; succinic acid, potassium 

 succinate, and about 7 per cent, of ash. The plant is used in the 

 preparation of the French liquor known as ABSINTHE. 



Artemisia Cina yields the official Santonin. 



Other species of Absinthium also yield volatile oils, as the 

 COMMON MUGWORT (Artemisia vulgaris), which yields from o.i 

 to 0.2 per cent, of an oil containing cineol ; Artemisia Barrelieri, 

 which contains an oil consisting almost entirely of thujone, and 

 said to be used in the preparation of Algerian absinthe. 



SAFFLOWER consists of the dried florets of Carthamus tinc- 

 torius, an annual herb which is known only in cultivation. The 

 florets are tubular, yellowish-red, the corolla tube being about 

 2 cm. long and with 5 small, linear lobes ; the stamens are exserted. 

 The ovary with the long, slender style is usually not present in 



