CUMINUM CYMINUM. 
Cumin * 
Class Pentandria. — Order Digynia. 
Nat. Ord. Umbellate. Linn. Jusa. 
Gen. Char. Fruit ovate, striated. Partial Umbels four. 
Involucre 4-cleft. 
This plant, which is the only species of Cuminum yet disco 
vered, is thought to be the Ku|X/vov of Dioscorides. It is a native 
of Egypt and Ethiopia, but much cultivated in the islands of Sicily 
and Malta, from whence we are supplied with the seeds. It was 
cultivated in England iu 1594, but our climate is not congenial to 
the growth of this plant. In its native soil, it rises to the height of 
about nine or ten inches, " but I have never seen it grow more than 
four in England, where I have sometimes had the plant come so far 
as to flower very well, but never to produce good seeds."t The root 
is annual, simple, and fibrous ; the stalk is round, slender, branched, 
and often procumbent; (he leaves are numerous, narrow, linear, 
pointed, grass-like, and of a deep green ; the flowers are produced 
in numerous small umbels, which are usually composed of four 
radii, each supporting a partial umbel of the like number of flowers ; 
both the general and partial involucre consist of three or four 
subulate unequal leaflets; the corolla is composed of five petals, of 
a purple colour, unequal, bent inwards and notched at the apex ; 
the filaments support simple anthers ; the germen is ovate, large, 
and inferior ; the two styles are minute, and terminated by simple 
stigmas ; the fruit is ovate, and consists of two oblong, striated 
seeds, flat on the side by which they are united, and convex and 
striated on the other. 
Qualities, &c. Cumin seeds have a strong, heavy odour, and 
a bitterish warm taste, accompanied with a shght aromatic flavour. 
They give out great part of their smell by infusion in water, but 
* Fig. a. the seed. 
+ Miller's Gard. Diet. 
VOL. II. 
H 
