334 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



impurities; the lump-galbanum, which is that commonly met with, is in 

 masses of a brownish or dark brownish-yellow colour, formed of agglutinated 

 tears, and containing many impurities, as sand, fragments of bark, &c. The 

 odour is peculiar and somewhat balsamic ; the taste is hot, bitter, and acrid. 

 It is soft, but when exposed to cold becomes brittle, and may be powdered. 

 It forms an emulsion with water, but is soluble in alcohol. According to 

 Missner it contains, Resin, 65-8 ; Gum, 22*6 ; Bassorin, 1*8 ; Volatile oil, 3*4, 

 &c. It has the same action on the system as the other gum-resins already 

 noticed, and is usually considered to rank between assafoetida and ammoniac, 

 being less powerful than the first and more active than the latter. Some 

 German writers are of opinion that it has a special influence on the uterine 

 system, but this has not been confirmed by experience. 



Medical Uses. — Galbanum is seldom employed in this country as an 

 internal remedy, but was at one time prescribed in Europe, in chronic affec- 

 tions of the respiratory organs, chronic rheumatism, and amenorrhoea. Ex- 

 ternally it is applied as a stimulant and resolvent to indolent swellings, form- 

 ing the basis of the Compound Galbanum Plaster of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. 

 The dose, when administered internally, is from ten to twenty grains either in 

 pill or in the form of an emulsion. 



Anethum. — Linn. 



Margin of calyx obsolete. Petals roundish, entire, involute, with a squarish retuse 

 lobe. Fruit lenticular, flattened from the back, surrounded by a flattened border. Me- 

 ricarps with equi-distant filiform ridges ; the 3 dorsal acutely keeled, the 2 lateral more 

 obsolete, losing themselves in the border. Vittae broad, solitary, filling the channels, 2 on 

 the commissure. 



A small genus of upright, smooth annuals, with decompound leaves, hav- 

 ing setaceous linear segments. The flowers are yellow. They are princi- 

 pally natives of the south of Europe, and of Asia. Most of them have aro- 

 matic seeds, which are used as condiments. 



A. graveolens, Linn. — Fruit elliptical, surrounded with a flat dilated margin. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 377 ; Woodville, t. 159 ; Stephenson and Churchill, iii. 137 ; 

 Lindley, Fl. Med. 50. 



Common Names.- — Dill ; Common Dill. 



Foreign Names. — Aneth, Fr. ; Aneto, It. ; Dill, Ger. 



Description. — Root tapering, long. Stem smooth, from 1 to 1| foot high, striated, 

 simply branched. Leaves tripinnate, with fine capillary segments; petioles broad and 

 sheathing at base, which has a distinct, somewhat membranous border. Umbels on long 

 stalks, destitute of an involucre. Petals varnished, yellow. Fruit oblong, bright shining 

 brown and convex at the back ; paler, and also convex at the edge, which is separated 

 from the base by a deep hollow; dorsal edges sharp, filiform, elevated, very distinct. 

 Commissure dull grayish-brown, with the humid vittse only indistinctly seen. 



The Dill is a native of the South of Europe, Egypt, and Persia, and has 

 been found at the Cape of Good Hope and Timor. It resembles the Fennel 

 very much in appearance, but the odour is less agreeable. It was well 

 known to the ancients, and was in general use among them as a condiment. 

 The part employed in medicine is the seed. This is oval, flat, dorsally com- 

 pressed, of a brown colour, surrounded by a lighter-coloured membranous 

 border. The odour is aromatic, and the taste warm, pungent, and some- 

 what bitter. These properties are owing to the presence of a volatile oil ; 

 this is of a pale-yellow colour. 



