2 BULLETIN 795, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
lectors of crude drugs in certain parts of the southern United States, 
are gathered by people living in the mountainous districts, who 
dry them, and then deliver them to country storekeepers in exchange 
for merchandise. When the storekeeper has accumulated a sufficient 
stock of " medicinal " roots, herbs, barks, flowers, etc., he takes them 
into town, where he sells them to a dealer in these commodities. 
Occasionally a small lot may be sent directly by parcel post or 
express to the drug dealer by the original collector, but the usual 
channel is through the country storekeepers. The daisy flowers, as 
received by the drug dealers, are remarkably free from other plant 
material, and the quantity of adhering stalk is negligible, an occa- 
sional corncob or chicken feather being practically the only extra- 
neous material found with the flowers. 
A review of the literature shows that this species of Chrysanthe- 
mum has long been recognized as an adulterant of insect powder. 
Beringer (2) 2 , Schrenk {29), and Unger (36) were the first to 
report the use of these flowers for this purpose. Others who include 
daisy flowers in the list of common adulterants of insect powder are 
Caesar and Loretz (If), Huber (17), Verneau (38), Tschirch and 
Oesterle (35), Durrant (11), Hockauf (16), and Hanausek and 
YTinton (15). Siedler (31) states that the flowers of C. leucanthe- 
mum have been exported from Dalmatia for several years under the 
name. " false insect flowers." 
USES FOR CHRYSANTHEMUM LEUCANTHEMUM. 
Schoepf (28), La Tourrette (19), Shecut (30), Eafinesque (25), 
Williams (W), Stearns (32), and Dragendorff (9) describe certain 
medicinal uses for Chrysanthemum leucanthemum. According to 
Cutler (7) and Shecut (30), the young leaves have been employed in 
salads. Merat and De Lens (21) of France and Porcher (2I{) of the 
United States state that no use is made of the plant in these coun- 
tries. Stearns (32), however, states that the flowers were used in 
medicine by the natives of Michigan in the early fifties. 
According to the United States Dispensator}^ (37), German cham- 
omile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) is sometimes adulterated with the 
flower heads of the common daisy, and Griffith (llf) lists it as an 
adulterant or substitute for chamomile (Anthemis nohilis L.). 
Through an investigation of the subject in 1918, the writers learned 
that oxeye daisy flowers are used to a very limited extent in some of 
the New England States in the preparation of a " tea " for " medici- 
nal " purposes. The daisy flowers collected in this country, how- 
ever, are used largely, if not exclusively, as an adulterant of insect 
powder. 
INSECTICIDAL ACTION OF CHRYSANTHEMUM LEUCANTHEMUM. 
Cantraine (5) learned in Kagusa that the Bosnians and Dalma- 
tians used 0. leucanthemum to destroy fleas, but fails to state what 
part of the plant served this purpose. It is quite probable that 
Cantraine mistook the flowers of G. cinemrioe folium for those of 
0. leucanthemum because of their similarity. Garrigues (12) quotes 
3 The numbers (italic), in parentheses, refer to the bibliography, page 7. 
J \ 
