2 BULLETIN 824, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pyrethrum is a section of the genus Chrysanthemum, which 

 belongs to the Compositse. The following good description of the 

 two species of Pyrethrum commonly used for preparing insect powder 

 is given in Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, vol. 2, 



p. 757 (New York, 1914) : 



Chrysanthemum coccineum, 'Willd. {Pyrethrum roseum, Bieh., not Web. & Mohr., 

 P. hybridum, Hort.). Glaubrous perennial, 1-2 ft. high; stem usually unbranched, 

 rarely branched at the top; leaves thin, dark green, or in dried specimens dark brown; 

 involucral scales with a brown margin; rays white or red in such shades as pink, 

 carmine, rose, lilac, and crimson, and sometimes tipped yellow, but never wholly 

 yellow. Caucasus, Persia. 



Chrysanthemum cinerarisefolium, Vis. Glaucous perennial, slender, 12-15 in. high; 

 stems unbranched, with a few short, scattered hairs below the flower; leaves long- 

 petioled, silky beneath, with distant segments; involucral scales scarious and whitish 

 at the apex. Dalmatia. 



fflSTORY. 



' While all accounts of the early history of insect powder do not 

 agree, the fact that the flowers of certain species of Pyrethrum 

 possessed the property of killing various insects was known to the 

 people of eastern Europe more than a century ago. Thus, according 

 to Siedler (257), insect flowers have been known for more than 100 

 years in Dalmatia, under the name ''Polvere de Pulisi." 



The first published reference to the nature of insect powder was 

 made in 1851 by Koch (161), who stated that the flowers of P. roseum 

 and P. carneum yield the celebrated Persian insect powder. Another 

 early writer on insect powder stated that its nature was kept a secret 

 from western Europe until early in the nineteenth century, when 

 Sumttoff (5), an Armenian merchant, while traveling in the Caucasian 

 region, discovered that insect powder was made from the ground 

 flower heads of Pyrethrum roseum and P. carneum. In 1818 Sumt- 

 toff's son began the manufacture of the powder on a large scale, and 

 about the same time the powder was first exported in large quantities 

 to European countries. It is said, however, that for some time 

 before 1818 Russia had been .consuming upward of 200,000 pounds 

 annually. Browne (38), Riley (223), and several later writers give 

 the same account of the discovery of the nature of insect powder, 

 except that the name of the first manufacturer appears as Jumtikoff 

 (7), and the first year of manufacture as 1828. Noodt (205), in 1858, 

 stated that insect powder was known to the inhabitants of Trans- 

 caucasia as "guirila." In this connection it may be of interest to 

 know that the name Buhach, applied to insect powder made from 

 flowers grown in California, is derived from the Slavonic w^ord Buha, 

 which signifies a flea. The word Buhach, however, does not appear 

 in the Slavonic language (55). 



According to MacOwan (184), the nature of insect powder was made 

 known to Russian military authorities in the Caucasus by some 

 Tcherkess prisoners. The cantonments there swarmed with fleas 



