56 
CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. 
*vild in some parts of Essex, frequently growing in corn fields, the 
sides of roads, and about dunghills. The root is annual ; the stalk rises 
about two feet in height, erect, round, smooth, and branched, of a 
glaucous tinge ; the leaves are compound: the lower ones pinnated, 
with gashed, wedge-shaped, somewhat roundish leaflets, the upper are 
divided into narrow linear-pointed segments the umbels and um- 
bellules are both many-rayed, but the latter composed of more radii 
than the former, and each furnished with an involucrutn of three 
narrow leaves, situated on one side, but the general involucrum is 
often wanting, or formed of a single linear leaf; the flowers are 
white, or of a reddish colour, composed of five uneqiinl oblong pe- 
tals, which are bent inwards ; the five lilaments are slender, and 
furnished with roundish yellow anthers ; the germeu is globular, and 
placed below the insertion of the corolla ; the two styles are bent in 
opposite directions, and terminated by simple stigmata ; the fruit is 
globular, and divisible into two hemispherical concave seeds.* 
Sensible Qualities. Every part of the plant when fresh has 
a very offensive odour, greatly resembling the Pentatoma Viridis of 
Linnaeus, a species of Ciraex or bug ; hence probably the origin 
of the word Coriandrum, from Kopig, a bug.f The seeds when dried 
have a grateful aromatic smell, a moderately warm, and slightly 
pungent taste ; these qualities depend upon an essential oil, that can 
be obtained separate by the distillation of the seeds with water. The 
seeds give out their active principles completely to alcohol, but only 
partially to water. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The seeds, like most of the 
umbelliferous plants, are stomachic and carminative : hence they are 
sometimes used in flatulencies and weakness of the stomach ; but 
they are principally used to disguise the odour and unpleasant taste of 
senna and other cathartics, and to correct their griping quality. 
It is asserted by Dioscorides that the seeds, when taken in any con- 
siderable quantity, produce deleterious efl^ects ; but we are told by 
Dr. Withering that he has known six drachms taken at once without 
any remarkable effect. The dose of the bruised seeds is from one 
scruple to a drachm. 
Off. The Seed. 
* This form of the frnit distingnisbes the genas Coriandrum from ail the othei* 
Umbellatae.— ' 
t Alston's Lect. on the Mat. Med. vol. i. p. 349. 
