CHAP. LXVII. 



COMPO'SITiE. ARTEMISIA. 



1069 



Synonyme. Artemisia frutiebsa, &c, Gmel. Sib., 2. p. 115. LSI. 



Engravings. Gmcl. Sib., 2. t. 51. ; Woodv., 335. t. 123. ; Encyc. of Plants, p. 11697. f. 1698. ; and our 

 fig. 838. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Stem somewhat branched. Leaves com- 

 poundly divided; those of the stem pinnate, linear, gla- 

 brous. Flowers about 5 in a head. Heads almost 

 sessile, disposed unilaterally and reflexedly in spikes, 

 which are in panicles. (Willd. Sp. PL) A native of 

 Siberia, Tartary, and Persia. It has been cultivated 

 since 1596 in British gardens, where it grows to the 

 height of 1 ft., forming a low spreading bush, and pro- 

 ducing abundance of whitish green flowers from Sep- 

 tember to November. The leaves are very small, linear, 

 and undivided. The seeds of this species were for- 

 merly imported from the Levant, under the name of 

 semen santonicum, or worm-seed ; but the plant is now 

 little used in medicine. It is, however, tonic, and 

 stomachic ; and, like many other plants now neglected, may be found useful 

 to practitioners who depend for drugs on their own resources. 



« 3. A. arborf/scens L. The arborescent Artemisia, or Tree Wormwood. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 1188. ; ; Willd. Sp. PI., 3. p. 1820. ; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2. vol. 5. p. 3. 

 Synonymes. Absinthium arborescens Lob. Ic, 1. p. 753. ; Abisvnthe, or Armoise en Arbrc, Fr. 

 Engravings. ? Park. Theatr., 93. f. 3. ; Lob. Icon., t. 753. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves tripinnatifid, silky, grey ; segments linear. Flowers 

 in globose heads, that are borne on simple branchlets. {Willd. Sj). PI.) A 

 native of the Levant, Portugal, and the south of France, principally on the 

 sea shore, where it grows to the height of 6 ft. or 8 ft., and produces its yel- 

 lowish green flowers from June to August. The whole plant so much re- 

 sembles the common wormwood, that Linnaeus considered it only a variety 

 of that species. It was cultivated in British gardens in 1640; Gerard calls 

 it the greater, or female, southernwood, and says that, " by careful manuring, 

 it doth oftentimes grow up in manner of a shrub, and cometh to be as high 

 as a man, bringing forth stalks an inch thick, or more, out of which spring 

 very many sprigs, or branches, set about with leaves, diversely jagged, and 

 finely indented, somewhat white, and of a certain strong smell." This 

 species makes a fine strong plant, and a fit associate for the strong-growing 

 variety of the common southernwood. There are plants of this species in 

 the Horticultural Society's Garden, in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, and in 

 the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges ; and it well deserves a place, with A. 

 ^brotanum and A. procera, in collections. Plants are Is. 6d. each. 



App. i. Other hardy Species of Artemisia. 



In our Hortus Britannicus, several species will be found indicated as ligneous and hardy; but, in 

 general, they are of such humble growth, and so imperfectly ligneous, that, for all practical purposes, 

 they may be more fitly considered as herbaceous plants ; unless we except A. procera, which is said to 

 grow 8 ft. high, but which appears to us to be nothing more than A. arborescens. 



App. ii. Half-hardy Species of Artemisia. 



The same remarks that we have applied to the hardy ligneous 

 species in the preceding Appendix will apply to those which are 

 half-hardy. Though there are a dozen or more of them enume- 

 rated in our Hortus Britannicus, they are almost all too low to be 

 considered otherwise than as herbaceous plants. The most in- 

 teresting of these is A. argentea Ait. Hort. Kew., 3. p. 170., L' 

 Hirit. Sert. Angl., t. 28, N. Du Ham., 6. t. 36., and our fig. 839. 

 This species has bipinnated silky white leaves, with lanceolate 

 linear leaflets. The flower heads are globose, and the flower-bearing 

 branches wand-like. The whole plant is of a silvery colour. It 

 is a native of Madeira, whence it was introduced in 1777 ; and, 

 in British green-houses, it grows to the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., 

 producing its yellowish green flowers in June and July. This is 

 by far the handsomest species of the genus, and it used formerly 

 to be very common in green-houses. If placed, under favourable 

 circumstances, against a conservative wall, it would make a fine 

 appearance, associated with such shrubs as Jnthyllis Z?arba 

 Jbvi*. 



