384 COMPOSITE. 



chemists, whose labours have shown that its pungent taste is due in 

 great part to a resin, not yet fully examined. The root also contains a 

 little volatile oil besides, sugar, gum, and a trace of tannic acid. The 

 so-called Pyrethrin is a mixed substance. 



Commerce — The root is collected chiefly in Algeria and is exported 

 from Oran and to a smaller extent from Algiers. But from the informa- 

 tion we have received from Colonel Playfair, British Consul-General for 

 Algeria, and from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Tunis, it appears that 

 the greater part is shipped from Tunis to Leghorn and Egypt. Mr. 

 Wood was informed that the drug is imported from the frontier town 

 of Tebessa in Algeria into the regency of Tunis, to the extent of 500 

 cantars (50,000 lb.) per annum. 



Bombay imported in the year 1871-72, 740 cwt. of this drug, of 

 which more than half was shipped to other ports of India.^ 



Uses — Chiefly employed as a sialogogue for the relief of toothache, 

 occasionally in the form of tincture as a stimulant and rubefacient. 



Substitute — In Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, African pellitory 

 is replaced by the root of Anacyclus officmarum Hayne, an annual 

 herb long cultivated in Prussia and Saxony.^ Its root of a light grey is 

 only half as thick as that of A. Pyrethrum, and is always abundantly 

 provided with adherent remains of stalks and leaves. It is quite as 

 pungent as that of the perennial species. 



FLORES ANTHEMIDIS. 



Chamomile Flowers ; F. Fleurs de Camomille Romaine ; G. Romische 



Kamillen. 



Botanical Origin — Anthemis nohilis L., the Common or Roman 

 Chamomile, a small creeping perennial plant, throwing up in the latter 

 part of the summer solitary flower-heads. 



It is abundant on the commons in the neighbourhood of London, 

 and generally throughout the south of England ; and extends to Ireland, 

 but is not a native of Scotland, except the islands of Bute and Cumbrae, 

 where Anthemis is stated to grow wild. It is plentiful in the west and 

 centre of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Dalmatia ; and occurs as a 

 doubtful native in Southern and Central Russia. 



History — The identification of the chamomile in the classical and 

 other ancient authors seems to be impossible, on account of the large 

 number of allied plants having similar inflorescence. 



The chamomile has been cultivated for centuries in English gardens, 

 the flowers being a common domestic medicine. The double variety 

 was well known in the 16th century. 



The plant was introduced, according to Gesner, into Germany from 

 Spain about the close of the middle ages. Tragus first designated it 

 Chamomilla nohilis,^ and Joachim Camerarius (1598), who had ob- 



'- Statement of the Trade and Navigation many the epithet edel (= nohilis) is fre- 



of the Presidency of Bombay in 1871-72, quently used in popular botany to desig- 



pt. ii. 19. 98. nate useful or remarkable plants. Tragus 



^ For further information on the medi- may have been induced to bestow it on the 



cinal species of Anacyclus, see a paper by species under notice, on account of its 



Dr. P. Ascherson in Bonplandia, 15 April superiority to Matricaria Camomiila, the 



1858. so-called Common Chamomile of the Ger- 



^ De Stirpium . . ., 1552. 149. — In Ger- mans. 



