FCENICULUM VULGARE. 



43 



The yellow dye prepared from turmeric is not much used except in combination 

 with other dyes, such as indigo and samower. It is found to be not a permanent 

 colour, and changes to red in the presence of an alkali. 



" As a medicine " Dr. Byniock says " it is applied in skin diseases, and also given inter- 

 u nally. The powder is applied to foul ulcers to clean them. Turmeric paste with the addition of 

 " lime is a popular application to bruises, sprains, wounds, leech bites, &c. 



" The starch of the young tubers which are nearly colourless, forms one of the East Indian arrow- 

 " roots. It is to be observed that the tubers which yield only starch when young will yield tur- 

 " meric when old, the colouring matter and aromatic principles are deposited in the cells at a later 

 " period of growth ; this is the case with almost all the Curcumas which have aromatic and coloured 

 u central tubers." 



FCENICULUM VULGARE, Gcertn. 



[ Vide Plate LXXXII.] 



Fennel; sonf, saunf (Hind.) ; panmahri (Beng.) ; madhurica (Sans.). 



Natural order Umbelliferce. The form cultivated in India is a tall glabrous annual. The leaves 

 are 2-4 pinnate with the ultimate segments very long. Flowers yellow. 



Sonf is extensively cultivated during the cold season in these Provinces in garden 

 patches. The root is used as a purgative, the leaves are eaten as a pot herb, and the 

 fruits are carminative. 



Eoxburgh, alluding to this Indian variety of fennel under the name Anethum 

 Panmori, says : — 



" Like sowa is cultivated in various parts of Bengal during the cold season for the seed which 

 the natives eat with their betel and also in their curries. Seed time about October. Harvest in 

 " March when the plants perish. The seeds possess a warmish, very sweet taste, and aromatic smell, 

 " so much like sweet fennel that I should certainly have thought them but varieties of the same 

 " species if I had not had both growing before me for several years in the Botanic Garden at 

 u Calcutta, where plants of Anethum Fceniculum reared from Europe seed do not blossom till the 

 u second year, during which period the leaves are bifarious, infinitely larger and more divided than 

 " in panmuhuree, which is an annual plant of only 4 or 5 months' duration, with the leaves at all times 

 " scattered, fewer and more remote." 



Dr. Dymock says that the Indian fennel fruits are rather smaller and straighter 

 than the European article. Modeen Sheriff points out that this plant and anise have 

 been confounded together in Arabic and Persian works. The root of fennel is rather 



• References :— FL Br. Ind., II., 695 ; Wight, Ic, t.515 j Watt, Diet. Econom. Prod., III., 405 ; Stewart, Punj. PL, 

 107 ; Atkinson, Econom. Prod., N.-W. Prov., V., 30 ; Him. Dist., I., 705, 737 ; Dymock, Veg. Mat. Med., 372, 737 ; 

 Pharmacogr. Ind., II., 124 ; F. officianale, All. ; Boiss., Fl. Or., II.. 975, F. Panmorium, DC. ; Wight, Ic., t. 670 ; Koyle, 

 111. Him. LSot., 229. F. capillaceum, Gilib., var. ; Bent, and Trimen, Med. PI., 123. Anethum Panmori, Roxb., Fl. Ind. 

 (Clarke's Ed.), 272 ; Fleming, Cat. Med. PI., 6. 



G 2 



