ANETHUM GRAVEOLENS. 
71 
are told by Miller,* that this plant is propagated by sowing the seeds 
in autumn soon after they are ripe, for if they are kept out of the 
ground till spring they frequently miscarry ; or if any of the plants 
do come up they often decay before they have perfected their seeds. 
They love a light soil, and will not bear to be transplanted, but must 
be sown where they are to remain ; for if the plants be removed 
they will not produce good seeds; therefore, the best way is, when 
the plants are come up to hoe them out as practised for onions, 
carrots, &c. leaving the plants eight or ten inches asunder 
every way. 
The root is long, tapering, of a whitish colour, striking deep into 
the ground, and sending off many strong fibres: from the root 
proceed several stems, which are erect, smooth, striated, jointed, 
branched, and rise to the height of about two feet ; the leaves are 
alternate, and placed at the joints of the stalks, standing upon 
sheathy footstalks : they are doubly pinnated, with the pinnae linear 
and pointed, smooth and glaucous ; the flowers are produced in 
terminal umbels, which are large, flat, and composed of several 
radii ; it has neither general nor partial involucrum ; the corolla con- 
sists of five yellow, ovate, obtuse, concave petals, with the apex 
inflected ; the filaments are longer than the corolla, and furnished 
with roundish anthers ; the germen is inferior and covered by the 
neetarium ; the styles are very short, terminated by obtuse stigmata ; 
the seeds are two, ovate, flat and striated. 
Sensible Qualities, &c. Dill seeds have a moderately warm 
pungent taste, and an aromatic and somewhat fragrant smell : these 
qualities depend on an essential oil which they contain ; four pounds 
yield about two ounces of oil, having the taste and odour of the 
seeds in a concentrated degree. Water extracts very Uttle of their 
virtues, either by infusion or digestion for many hours; alcohol 
extracts both flavour and odour. 
Medical Properties and Uses. From the time of Dios- 
corides the whole plant has been much used as a carminative and 
stomachic medicine, and greatly esteemed in flatulent colics, dys- 
pepsia, and complaints arising from laxity of the stomach, &c. ; and 
we are told by Murray,! that they promote the secretion of milk. 
In the present day they are chiefly used (in the form of the distilled 
water, prepared from them) in flatulent colic and hiccough of infants. 
* Card. Diet. 
t App. Med. Tol. i. p. 289. 
