ANETHUM FCENICULUM. 
78 
compressed, three-ribbed, and encircled with a membranous 
margin. 
There are two or three varieties of this plant. The officinal 
Foeniculi Semina of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin Colleges, 
are the produce of the variety indigenous to the South of Europe, 
and are imported from Italy, The roots are the produce of our 
wild and cultivated species, and are taken up in spring for use. 
Sensible Qualities, &c. The roots have little or no odour, 
and a slight aromatic and sweetish taste. The seeds are fragrant and 
have a warm sweet taste; these qualities depend upon the essential 
oil they contain, which on distillation with water, separates and 
swims upon the surface. Both the flavour and odour of the seeds 
are imparted to alcohol. Boiling water extracts these qualities very 
imperfectly. The watery infusion is somewhat aromatic and not 
altered by sulphate of iron. The distilled water is aromatic and 
milky. Seventy-five pounds of seed yield about thirty ounces of 
colourless oil, with the smell and taste of the seed ; it congeals and 
becomes like butter at 20« Fahr.* These seeds contain, likewise, a 
considerable quantity of a gross, insipid, inodorous, fixed oil. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Fennel was esteemed by 
Greek physicians as a medicine possessing considerable powers, 
particularly for promoting the secretion of milk,t and also as a 
resolvent, diuretic, stomachic, and carminative. Boerhaave supposed 
the root to possess aperient qualities. In modern practice the plant 
is altogether nearly disregarded. The seeds (the officinal part of the 
plant) are carminative and stomachic, but certainly less so than either 
the dill, carraway, or aniseed ; hence the preference is given to them, 
and fennel is seldom prescribed but in the form of the distilled water 
of the London Pharmacopoeia, which forms a pleasant vehicle for 
rhubarb, manna, &c. when given to infants. The seeds may be 
given (when bruised) in doses of from half a drachm to a drachm. 
Off. The Seed. 
Off. Pp. Aqua Foeniculi, L. D. 
Oleum Foeniculi, D. 
* Gray's Elemeuts. 
t Hippoc. De Morb, Mul, lib. i, sect. 5, p. 608, Foes. Dioscorid. M. M. lib. iii. 
o. 81, p. 205, Sarac. 
VOL. II. M 
