INSECT POWDER. O 



quality, that from half-opened blooms, comes from Cittavecchia, 

 Dalmatia. The third, from the full blooms, is produced in Ragusa, 

 Dalmatia. The "buds" used in making the first-quality powder 

 are very small, 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter, and look like a large 

 chamomile flower. The cultivated plants bear flower heads with a 

 diameter of from 8 to 10 millimeters, having the rays very close 

 together and covering the crown, being again covered by involucral 

 bracts. Powder of the third quality is prepared from flower heads 

 with a diameter of from 10 to 12 millimeters, almost disclike in form, 

 many of them being without ray florets. 



After the nature of insect powder became known, the cultivation 

 of Pyrethrum was taken up in several countries. The growing of 

 Pyrethrum roseum, introduced into France about 1856, is described 

 by Willemot (294), and Heckel (123) discusses the cultivation of 

 Pyrethrum cinerarisefolium in the botanical garden of Marseilles 

 since 1900. The cost of harvesting the flower heads is the great 

 obstacle to the remunerative growing of the plants in southern France. 



In Germany Pyrethrum roseum and carneum are reported by 

 Schenck (242) as growing well as early as 1859, and their cultivation 

 there was described in detail by Pauckert (209) in 1866. According 

 to Siedler (258), however, experiments made under the direction of 

 the Agi*icultural High School on the cultivation of different insect- 

 powder-producing species of Chrysanthemum near Berlin in 1886 

 were without favorable results. In May, 1912, another effort was 

 made to grow the C. cinerarisefolium in Germany by planting some 

 seeds from Dalmatia in the garden of the Pharmaceutical Institute 

 of Berlin University. The winter of 1913-14 killed more than one- 

 half of the plants, only a few being left after the winter of 1914-15, 

 but Siedler (258) believes the cultivation of Pyrethrum near Berlin 

 can be made profitable if proper care is taken. 



Kalbruner (151), in 1874, stated that in Austria Pyrethrum roseum 

 and carneum were frequently seen in gardens, and their cultivation in 

 that country was described in 1889 by Labler (166). The cultiva- 

 tion of C. cinerarisefolium at Komeuburg near Vienna is taken up 

 in an article by Kuraz (165). 



Semenoff (253), in 1878, stated that in the Caucasus the produc- 

 tion of Persian insect powder, made from the flowers of Pyrethrum 

 roseum and carneum, amounted to about 720,000 pounds annully 

 in 1850, but that 20 years later it had decreased to less than one-third 

 of this figure, due to the competition of the Dalmatian powder. The 

 flower heads are collected from wild-growing plants in June and July, 

 and are dried first in the sun and then in the shade. 



Simmonds (259), in 1891, reported that the Pyrethrum Willemotii 

 (the name given to P. cinerarisefolium by Willemot) succeeds well 

 in Algeria. BUn (31) described the cultivation of Pyrethrum at the 



