118 



FRUITS 



making, as well as the residues obtained after distillation with water 

 or in a current of steam. Fruits exhausted by water or steam are 

 darker, contain less oil, and sink at once in water, but those exhausted 

 by alcohol vapour retain 1-0 to 2-0 per cent, of oil, and are but little 

 altered in appearance ; they acquire, however, a peculiar fusel-oil 

 odour. Recoloured fennel may be detected by rubbing the fruits 

 between the hands. 



U ses> Fennel is used as an agreeable aromatic and carminative. 



DILL FRUITS 



(Fructus Anethi) 



Source, &C. The dill, Peuceddnum graveolens, Bentham and Hooker 

 films (N.O. Umbelliferce) is a short erect annual herb indigenous to 



the Mediterranean districts 

 and southern Russia, but 

 cultivated in England, Ger- 

 many, and Roumania. The 

 plant was formerly placed 

 in a separate genus, Ane- 

 thum, whence the name 

 ' Fructus Anethi ' ; it is 

 now included in the genus 

 Peucedanum. 



The drug has been in use 

 in this country from very 

 early times. 



FIG. 64. Dill fruit. A, entire fruit, side view, 

 magnified 3 diam. B, commissural surface 

 of mericarp, showing the vittse as dark 

 lines, magnified 3 diam. G, transverse 

 section : p., vittae ; /c, ridges ; v, commis- 

 sural surface ; 2, endosperm ; magnified 

 14 diam. D, portion of the same, further 

 enlarged. (Berg.) 



Description. In the 



commercial drug the two 

 mericarps of which the 

 fruit is composed are 

 usually separate and free 

 from the pedicel ; they are 

 broadly oval in outline, 

 and so strongly dorsally 



compressed as to be nearly flat. They average about 4 mm. in 

 length and 2'5 mm. in breadth. 



Each mericarp is glabrous, brown, and traversed from base to 

 apex by five primary ridges, of which the three dorsal are only slightly 

 raised, and are brown, filiform, and inconspicuous ; whilst the lateral 

 are prolonged into thin, yellowish, membranous wings. The trans- 

 verse section exhibits under the lens six vittse, viz. four on the dorsal 

 and two on the commissural surface ; the endosperm is oily, and is 

 not grooved on its commissural surface either in transverse or longi- 

 tudinal section. Both the odour and taste are agreeably aromatic. 



