318 ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



is less than one per cent, in amount, and has a pleasant 

 odor. Coriander is used in confectionery, for liquors, 

 and medicinally. 



319. Fennel, Fceniculum vulgare (family Umbelliferce), 

 is a European plant, cultivated for the pleasant aromatic 



« quality of its leaves, which are used in flavoring sauce. 

 It grows from three to six feet high, has a round stem 

 much hranched and glaucous, biternate leaves finely dis- 

 sected, yellow flowers, and turgid, ovate, oblong fruit, 

 which is warmly aromatic. All parts of the plant are 

 impregnated with oil to the amount of three per cent.; 

 but it is extracted from the fruit only. The Fennel-oil is 

 yellowish in color, has a pleasant odor, and a sweetish 

 taste; its specific gravity is .9 to 1.0. The principal con- 

 stituent of the oil is Anethol. It is used medicinally. 



320. The Hop-plant, Humulua I/wpulus (family TJrti- 

 eaeecB), grows wild in Europe, Asia, and North America, 

 and is also extensively cultivated. It is an annual twining 

 plant with a rough stem ; the leaves are long-petiolate, 

 three-lobed, and very rough on the surface. The starainate 

 flowers have five sepals, five stamens, dehiscent by a pore ; 

 the flowers are numerous, greenish and panicled; the pistil- 

 late flowers have one sepal and two styles, are small and 

 inconspicuous, but they are subtended by large, entire, 

 concave and imbricated bracts, which form a cone, or 

 cone-like ament. The fruit-clusters are the Sops; they 

 have on the upper side of the scales or bracts golden- 

 yellow glands, which are many-celled, oval or roundish, 

 and contain a volatile-oil. The wild Hops are larger than 

 the cultivated ones, but have scarcely any glands. A 

 bitter principle called Lupulin (or Humulin) is contained 

 in the glands; the latter are sometimes isolated by shaking 



