CUMIN UM C YM IN UM. -CUMIN. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA . Order II. D I G Y N I A . 
Natural Order, UMBELLATE. 
Fig. ( a ) the seed. 
This plant, which is the only species of Cuminum yet discovered, is thought to be the Kv/ttvov of Dioscorides. 
It is a native of Egypt and Ethiopia, but much cultivated in the islands of Sicily and Malta, from whence 
we are supplied with the seeds. It was cultivated in England in 1594 , but our climate is not congenial to 
the growth of this plant. In its native soil it rises to the height of about nine or ten inches, “ but I have 
never seen it grow more than four in England, where I have sometimes had the plant come so far as to flower 
very well, but never to produce good seeds.” The root is annual, simple, and fibrous ; the stalk is round, 
slender, branched, and often procumbent ; the leaves are numerous, narrow, linear, pointed, grass-like, and 
of a deep green ; the flowers are produced in numerous small umbels, which are usually composed of four 
radii, each supporting a partial umbel of the like number of flowers ; both the general and partial involucre 
consist of three or four subulate unequal leaflets ; the corolla is composed of five petals of a purple colour, 
unequal, bent inwards and notched at the apex ; the filaments support simple anthers ; the germen is ovate, 
large, and inferior ; the two styles are minute, and terminated by simple stigmas ; the fruit is ovate, and 
consists of two oblong, striated seeds, flat on the side by which they are united, and convex and striated on 
the other. 
Qualities, &c. — Cumin seeds have a strong heavy odour, and a bitterish warm taste, accompanied 
with a slight aromatic flavour. They give out great part of their smell by infusion in w r ater, but very little 
of their taste. In distillation with water, a considerable quantity of a yellow pungent oil rises, in the pro- 
portion of twelve ounces from twenty-five pounds of the fresh seeds. This essential oil has a strong un- 
grateful smell and flavour, like the seeds. Rectified spirit takes up both odour and taste, and yields, when 
evaporated, an extract containing the sensible qualities of the seeds. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Cumin seeds are said to be carminative and stomachic ; and from 
the large proportion of essential oil they contain, we should be led to suppose them equal, if not superior, to 
many of the umbelliferous tribe. But they are seldom given internally, and almost the only use to which 
they are applied is as an external stimulant in discussing indolent tumours. 
Off. The Seed. 
Off. Pp. Emplastrum Cumini, L. 
You often walk into the country, and it is well for you that you do ; “ God made the country, but man 
made the town,” said one who looked upon Nature with the eye of a lover and a poet. What can be more 
exhilarating than the breezes that blow upon you as you wander upon the hill ? W 7 hen can you gaze upon 
aught that shall present to your mind so many new and beautiful images, as when your eye rests upon the 
wild scenes of nature ? Whether you look upon the soft green carpet at your feet, or watch the changing 
and pillowy clouds that pass over the azure sky : whether you lie among the wild flowers beside the rippling 
stream, or actively pursue your way through the wood amid the entangling branches, — all is beauty and 
delight. Even though the remembrance of the falling leaf and the fading flower should intrude, yet can 
you never forget that spring will again revisit the earth to stock it with loveliness, and that what to you 
hall appear in the season of winter to have perished will flourish again in renewed youth and beauty ; an 
emblem of that more glorious spring which shall one day renew with fresh-born powers and splendour the 
frail bodies of those whom we mournfully number with the dead. 
Those parts of Africa immediately under and about the torrid zone, are remarkable for several instances 
of plants of a prodigious size; but none can exceed the immense baobab ( Adansonia digitata :), which 
flourishes in those countries bordering the Gambia, and some other parts of Africa. This tree received its 
name from M. Adanson, a French naturalist, who first described it. This gentleman resided several years 
in Africa, and greatly contributed by his information to our knowledge of African botany. 
The French have called this tree the calabash-tree, and named the fruit which it produces monkey’s- 
bread ; but the natives of the countries near the Senegal denote it by the appellation of boui. 
We are struck with surprise and admiration when we read of the beautiful and useful banian-tree of 
warm climates; a tree whose frequent description must have made you acquainted with its extraordinary 
size and nature; yet the baobab exceeds even this tree in size; for, although its branches do not extend to 
so great a distance, the dimensions of its trunk are far greater than that of any other tree. 
