62 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
middle bi- and those in the upper part simply pinnatipartite, those 
towards the upper part of the panicle often entire. Anthodes 
| inch across or more. Florets yellow. Achenes small, obovate- 
ovoid, glabrous. Whole plant silky pubescent, aromatic. 
Common Wormwood. 
French, Armoise Absinthe. German, Wermuth. 
This herb was highly esteemed by the ancients as a tonic and diuretic, and was 
also considered to promote digestion and to l'estore the appetite. The Greek and Roman 
physicians likewise gave it as a vermifuge. Our own forefathers held it in great 
esteem, though some of the uses to which it was applied originated in superstition, or 
in the accounts given of it by the old classical writers, then held as the fountains of 
all wisdom. It was supposed to counteract witchcraft and necromancy, and was 
called by the monkish herbalists Cingulum Sancti Johannis, that saint being said to 
have used it as a girdle. If a garland of it were thrown into the fire on Midsummer 
eve, certain mystic verses being repeated at the same time, it effectually protected the 
operator from all supernatural agencies or magical incantations for the space of a year. 
It was often hung up in houses to protect them from evil spirits, or with a view of 
expelling or destroying the insects and vermin with which the timber of old houses 
was so much infested. Tusser alludes to its value in both these cases : — 
" While wormwood hath seed, get a handful or twaine, 
To save againste March to make flea to refraine. 
Where chamber is sweeped, and wormwood is strowne, 
No flea for his life dare abide to be knowne. 
Whatsoever is better, if physick be true, 
For places infected than wormwood or rue? 
It is as a comfort, for hart and the braine, 
Aud therefore to have it, it is not in vaine." 
Gerarde is very discursive on the virtues of wormwood. After a long list of 
diseases for which he recommends its use, he says : " It helpeth them that are 
strangled with eating of mushromes or toad stools, if it be drunke with vinegre. And 
being taken with wine it is good against the poyson of Ixia (being a viscous matter 
proceeding from the thistle chamselion) and of hemlocke, and against the biting of the 
shrew mouse and of the sea dragon." The wormwood is really a powerful aromatic 
herb, and, when taken in moderate doses, acts as a mild tonic, in the same way as 
do many vegetable bitters. In Wales it is frequently put into beer instead of hops, 
and is said to prevent it turning sour ; the Wermuth beer of Germany is made in 
a similar manner. The drink known by the name of Purl is made by infusing 
Wormwood in beer. The liquor so highly esteemed in France under the name of 
Absinthe, is prepared by infusing this plant in spirit, and adding spices and condiments 
to it. It is a most seductive and dangerous compound, and often betrays those who 
would shrink from being considered habitual spirit-drinkers. The ashes of the 
plant y"'ord a large quantity of carbonate of potash, which at the present day is sold 
in the shoos as Salt of Wormwood. 
