SANTONICA. 3S7 



SANTONICA. 



Flores CincB, Semen Cirwe,^ Semien Santonicce, Semen Zedoarice, Semen 

 Contra, Semen SaTictum ; Woi-mseed ; F. Semen-contra, Semencine, 

 Barbotine ; G. WiD-msamen, Zihversamen. 



Botanical Origin — Atiemisid maritima, var. a. Stechmanniana 

 Besser^ (A. Lercheana Karel. et Kiril, in Herbb. Kew, et Mus. Brit. ; 

 A. maHtima var. a. paucijlora Weber, quoad Ledebour, Floi\ Ross. ii. 

 570). 



Artemisice of the section Seriphidium. assume great diversity of 

 form:' they have been the object of attentive study on the part of the 

 Russian botanists Besser (1834-35) and Ledebour (1844-46), whose 

 researches have resulted in the union of many supposed species, under 

 the head of the Linnsean Aiiemisia mantima. This plant has an 

 extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the old 

 world, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt marshes 

 of the British Islands, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France and the 

 Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary and Podolia ; thence it 

 extends eastward, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia, the 

 regions of the Caspian, and Central Siberia, to Chinese Mongolia. 



The particular variety which furnishes at least the chief part of the 

 drug, is a low, shrubby, aromatic plant, distinguished by its very small, 

 erect, ovoid flowerheads, having oblong, obtuse, involucral scales, the 

 interior scales being scarious. The stem in its upper half is a fastigiate, 

 thyrsoid panicle, crowned with flowerheads. The localities for the plant 

 are the neighbourhood of the Don, the regions of the lower Volga near 

 Sarepta and Zaritzyn, and the Kirghiz deserts. 



The drug, which consists of the minute, unopened flowerheads, is 

 collected in large quantities, as we are informed by Bjorklund (1867), on 

 the vast plains or steppes of the Kirghiz, in the northern part of Tur- 

 kestan. It was formerly gathered about Sarepta, a German colony in 

 the Government of Saratov, but fi-om direct information we have (1872) 

 received, it appears to be obtained there no longer. 



The em])orium for worm-seed is the great fair of Nishnei-Novgorod 

 (July loth to Aug. 27th), whence the drug is conveyed to Moscow, St. 

 Petersburg, and Western Europe. 



Wormseed is found in the Indian bazaars. A specimen received by 

 us from Bombay does not materially differ in form from the Russian 

 drug, but is slightly shaggy and mixed with tomentose stalks. It is 

 probably brought from Afghanistan and CabuL* 



Wilkomm' has described, as mother-plant of wormseed, an 



^ From the Italian 8e»n€n2*«a, the diminu- specimen of A. Lercheana Karel. et KiriL 



tive of senwtiza (seed). in the same herbarium. 



*W. S. Besser in Bxilletin de la Soc. imp. ^ «<si alise Artemisia multiim variant, 



desNaturalistesdeMoscou^vu. {18M) 31. — Seriphidia inconstantia formamm omnes 



A specimen of the plant in question labelled superant. . . ." — Besser. 



in Besser's handwriting, -with a memoran- ^Artemma No. 3201, Herb. Griffith, 



dum that it is collected for medicinal use, Afghanistan, in the Kew Herbarium has 



is in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, capitules precisely agreeing with this Bom- 



Kew. It completely agrees with the Se- bay drug. 



mm Cime of Russian and German com- ^ Bot. Zeitung, l^iATzl872. 130; Phai-vi. 



nierce. This remark also applies to a Joum. 23 March 1872. 772 (abstract). 



