CORIANDER, ETC. 387 



oval in outline, rounded at both ends and flat, three 

 dorsal ribs prominent, two side ones developed into a 

 flat, thin, paler-coloured wing. 



The plant occurs as a weed in cereal crops in 

 southern Europe, and south to Egypt and Abyssinia. 

 It was cultivated by the Greeks and Komans, and 

 introduced into England in 1570. The Indian form 

 has rather longer and narrower fruits. 



It is cultivated in India in the same way as 

 coriander, and the fruit when ripe is treated in the same 

 method. 



USE 



' Dill seed, as it is often called, Anethi fructus of the 

 chemists, is used in curry powder, and also as a sub- 

 stitute for caraway seed in seed cakes. In medicine it 

 has long been known as a cure for flatulence in infants, 

 under the form of dill- water. 



As a spice, it is rarely used in Europe. The oil is 

 obtained by crushing and distilling with water, as in 

 coriander. It is used in medicine chiefly in the manu- 

 facture of dill-water. Its price in Singapore is from 

 15 to 20 cents per Ib. 



CUMIN 



Cumin is the fruit of a herbaceous annual known as 

 Cuminum cyminum, L., a native of the Mediterranean 

 region, Upper Egypt, and Arabia. It is largely culti- 

 vated in India, as the coriander and dill, for curry 

 powder. It is a herb about 1 ft. tall, with a much 

 branched stem, strongly striate or angular, with nearly 

 sessile upper leaves, the lower ones with longer leaf- 

 stalks, the blade divided into long, slender, setaceous, 

 linear segments, pale green. The flowers are rose- 

 coloured or white, in stalked umbels of few rays. The 

 fruit, about J in. long, oval, oblong, very little com- 

 pressed, greyish brown, and the ridges finely hispid with 

 papillose hairs. In some forms the hairs are quite 

 absent. 



