FLO WERS. 
183 
MATRICARIA (Wild or German Chamomile). 
The flower- heads of Matricaria Chamomilla (Fain. 
Compositse), an annual herb indignous to Europe and 
Western Asia, and naturalized in Australia and 
certain parts of the United States, including New 
York and Pennsylvania. The flower-heads are col- 
lected, when they are mature or expanded, from wild 
plants. 
Description. — Rounded, conical, 3 to 10 mm. broad ; 
peduncle 0'5 to 3’5 cm. long, nearly glabrous ; involu- 
cre hemispherical, scales twenty to thirty, imbricated, 
oblanceolate, the middle portion brownish, margin 
whitish, pubescent ; receptacle ovoid, becoming conical 
and hollow, deeply pitted, naked, 3 to 5 mm. high, 
about 1'5 mm. in diameter; ray or ligulate flowers 
twelve to eighteen, pistillate, about 12 mm. long, 
corolla white, three-toothed, four-veined; disk or tubu- 
lar flowers numerous, yellowish, perfect, oblong, small, 
somewhat glandular, about 2’5 mm. long; achenes 
somewhat obovoid, about 0‘5 mm. long, faintly three 
to five-ribbed ; pappus none, or forming a membra- 
nous crown; odor distinct ; taste aromatic and bitter. 
Constituents. — The active principles resemble those 
found in anthemis; the amount of volatile oil how- 
ever is less, only about 025 per cent, being present, 
and while similar to is not identical with that of 
anthemis. 
Adulterants. — Matricaria is not infrequently adul- 
terated with the flower-heads of other Compositae, as 
Anthemis arvensis. In these, the peduncle is pubescent ; 
the receptacle solid and conical ; involucral scales 
lanceolate; chaff-scales lanceolate or lanceolate-acumi- 
nate, about 4 mm. long. In Anthemis Cotula the 
peduncles are slightly pubescent and the ligulate 
flowers neutral. 
