GNAPIIALIUM CUD-WEED. 183 



ARTEMISIA. —Wormwood. 



Character of the Genus. — Heads many-flowered, discoid ; flowers all 

 tubular, the marginal ones pistillate, though sometimes all are perfect. 

 Scales of the involucre imbricated, with slightly scarious margins. Re- 

 ceptacle small, naked. Achenia obovate, rounded or narrow at the top ; 

 pappus none. 



Herbs or shrubs, with small heads in panicled spikes or racemes ; flow- 

 ers yeUow or purplish. 



A genus comprising, in North America, a large number of species, few 

 of which, however, have been employed medicinally. All of them possess, 

 to a greater or less extent, bitter and aromatic properties. The species 

 described below, though not indigenous, well represents the medicinal 

 virtues of the genus. 



Artemisia Absinthium Linne. — Wormwood. 



Description. — Marginal flowers pistillate; the others perfect. Heads 

 numerous, densely clustered, hemispherical, nodding, yellow. Stem some- 

 what shrubby, 2 to 4 feet high, branching, silky-hoary. Leaves 2- to 3- 

 pinnately parted, the lobes lanceolate, obtuse. 



Habitat. — Indigenous to the Eastern Continent, but long cultivated and 

 sparingly naturalized here. 



Parts Used. — The leaves and tops — United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Constituents. — Volatile oil, a bitter principle termed absinthin, and com- 

 mon vegetable constituents such as tannin, starch, gum, etc. 



Preparations. — Wormwood enters into the official Vinum Aromaticum, 

 but there are no official preparations of the plant itself. It is generally 

 employed in infusion. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Wormwood is stimulant and tonic. It 

 has been employed chiefly in debility of the digestive organs, as atonic and 

 flatulent dyspepsia. The volatile oil of wormwood in large doses produces 

 great cerebral disturbance with epileptiform convulsions, and may even 

 cause death. It is seldom or never employed medicinally, but enters into 

 the composition of a French liqueur called absinthe. 



Externally fomentations of wormwood are often used in bruises, 

 sprains, etc. 



GN APHALIUM. —Cud-Weed. 



Gnaphalium polycephalum Michaux. — Common Everlasting. 



Description. — Heads many-flowered, all tubular ; the outer pistillate, 

 very slender, generally in several series ; the central perfect. Scales of the 

 involucre ovate and oblong, rather obtuse, whitish. Receptacle flat, naked. 

 Achenia terete. Pappus a single series of rough, capillary bristles. 



An erect, woolly herb, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves lanceolate, tapering at 



