ARTEMISIA. ABSINTHIUM. 
97 
The Artemisia Absinthium is a perennial plant, a native of Britain ; 
in its wild state it is usually found growing on waste rubbishy soils, 
near the sides of roads, and in rocky places; in the neighbourhood 
of London it is pretty largely cultivated for medicinal and other 
purposes.* 
The root of this plant is woody, branched, and at the lower part 
fibrous ; the stems rise to the height of one or two feet, erect, 
branched, striated, and leafy ; the leaves are compound, and divided 
into many obtuse segments, the lower leaves are bipinnate, the upper 
ones digitated or pinnatifid, and stand upon short footstalks ; the 
leaves and stems are covered with a very soft silky down ; the flowers 
are hemispherical, drooping, of a yellow colour, and grow in 
racemes, placed alternately upon the branches — each flower is accom- 
panied by oblong bracteas ; the calyx is imbricated, and composed 
of many oval scales; the florets of the disk are numerous, perfect, 
and divided into five segments, those of the radius less numerous and 
destitute of stamens ; the filaments in the perfect flowers are five ; 
the anthers are united and form a five-toothed tube ; the germen 
supports a long recurved style, crowned with a cloven stigma ; the 
seeds are obovate, naked, and placed upon a convex villous recep- 
tacle. 
This species of Artemisia is supposed to be the Absinthium Ponti- 
cum of Dioscorides and Pliny. It is one of the principal herbaceous 
bitters, and it is said, .communicates a bitter taste to the flesh and 
milk of cows and sheep that feed upon it.f 
Sensible Qualities, Chemical Properties, &c. The leaves 
of wormwood, when recent, have a powerful and (to most people) 
a very disagreeable smell; the taste is intensely bitter; the flowers 
are less bitter, and somewhat aromatic ; and the roots are warm and 
aromatic, without the bitterness of either of the former. Both water 
and spirit extract its virtues, and in distillation with the former it 
yields a dark green essential oil, in the proportion of from six to ten 
drachms from 25 lbs. of the herb, with the smell and flavour of the 
plant. The watery infusion is of an olive colour, and turns black 
with the addition of sulphate of zinc or iron. Wormwood by analysis 
has yielded 66 per cent, of a vegetable acid combined with potass. 
* The leaves and tops of wormwood were formerlj much used in the brewing of malt 
liquor, and when infused in ale, forraed the favorite liquor called purl. We are told that 
the distillers of whiskey use them in place of hops. Ed. 
t Linn. Flora Suec. n. 735. 
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