ARNICA 75 



Substitutes, &c. Of the numerous other composite flowers reported 

 to have been mixed with or sold for arnica, the following may be 

 mentioned. 



Anthemis tinctoria, Linne ; fruits without pappus ; palese on 

 receptacle. 



Calendula offlcinalis, Linne ; ligulate corolla with four veins ; fruit 

 without pappus. 



Inula britannica, Linne ; ligulate corolla with four veins ; pappus 

 not bristly. Arnica from the 

 Italian Alps is frequently derived 

 from /. britannica. 



Doronicum pardalianches, Linne ; 

 ligulate corolla with four veins ; 

 no pappus. 



Taraxacum sp. ; Scorzonera sp. ; 

 all florets with 5-toothed ligulate 

 corollas. 



WORMSEED 



(Santonica, Semen Cinae, 

 Semen Contra) 



Source, &c. Wormseed con- FlG ' 



B, disc-floret. C, the same, cut 



Sists Of the small, unexpanded vertically : o, ovary ; p, pappus ; 



flower-heads of Artemisia mari- a, anthers. All magnified. (Luer- 



tima, var. a-Stechmanniana, Besser ssen.) 



(N.O. Compositce) . The species has, 



in numerous varieties, an extremely wide distribution, from the Bay 

 of Biscay to Chinese Mongolia. The variety from which part at least 

 of the drug is obtained, and which, according to some botanists, 

 should be considered a distinct species (^4. Cina, Berg), grows in 

 enormous quantities in the deserts of the Kirghiz in Turkestan, 

 especially near the town of Chimkent (which lies to the north of 

 Taschkent and some seventy miles east of the Sir Daria river) where 

 factories have been erected, in which large quantities of santonin are 

 produced from the wormseed collected in the vicinity. Comparatively 

 little of the crude drag is now exported. 



The plant is small and woody, with numerous, erect branches about 

 40 cm. long, on which very small flowerheads are borne. These are 

 stripped from the stems before they expand, and dried. They are 

 collected in July and August by Kirghiz and other tribes and brought 

 to Chimkent. 



Wormseed has long been used as an anthelmintic ; it was employed 

 in Italy under the name of semenzina (diminutive of semenza = seed) 

 under the belief that it consisted of small seeds. From the word 

 semenzina is derived the name ' semen cinse,' by which the drug is 



