SYNGENESIA. SUPERFLUA. Artemisia.' 923 
(2) Stems upright , herbaceous : leaves compound . 
A. absinthium. Leaves compound,, many-clefts (clothed with short 
silky down: E.) flowers somewhat globular, pendent: recep¬ 
tacle hairy. 
Kniph. 4— {E. Bot. 1230. E.)- — Ludw. 76 — Woodv . 120— Blachw. 17— 
Matth. 685—-Bod. 23— Lob. Obs. 433. 2, and Ic. i. 752. 1—Ger. Em. 1096. 
1 —Park. 98. 1— H. Ox. vi. 1, row 3. 1— Ger. -937. 2— Trag. 335— Ger. 
937. 1 —Pet. 20. 1— J. B. iii. a. 168— Gmel. ii. 63. 
Leaves cottony on both sides, green above, white and shining underneath, 
the upper with three clefts, or simple, sessile, bluntly spear-shaped. 
Calyx , scales bluntly egg-shaped, green, cottony at the back, the edges 
membranous. Receptacle , down as long as the florets. Woodw. Stevis 
numerous, a foot or more in height, scored, whitish, with very short 
down. Spikes upright. Flowers turned downwards. Blossom brownish 
white. ( Root rather ligneous, branched. E.) 
Common Wormwood. (Irish: Bofullanhan. Welsh: Chwerwlys ; Wer~ 
mod Iwyd. E.) Road sides, rocky places and on rubbish. P. Aug.* 
A. vulga'ris. Leaves wing-cleft, flat, cut, cottony underneath: 
bunches simple: florets of the circumference five: (receptacle 
naked. E.) 
(E. Bot. 978— FI. Dan. 1176. E.) — Ludw. 153— Blackw. 431— Woodv. 121 
— H. Ox. vi. 1 , row 2. 2, f 3— Matth. 848 — Bod. 33. 1 — Lob. Obs. 441. 
* The leaves and flowers are very bitter, (and employed in some parts of Wales as a 
substitute for hops ; also laid in drawers and chests to drive away insects from clothes. E.) 
The roots are warm and aromatic. A considerable quantity of essential oil rises from this herb 
in distillation, which is used both externally and internally to destroy worms. The leaves, 
put into sour beer, soon remove the ascescency. They resist putrefaction, and are 
therefore a principal ingredient in antiseptic fomentations. An infusion of them is a good 
stomachic, and, with the addition of fixed alkaline salt, a powerful diuretic in some 
dropsical cases. The ashes afford a more pure alkali than most other vegetables, ex¬ 
cepting Bean-stalks, Broom, and the larger trees, (and hence that called Salt of Worm¬ 
wood usually obtained, but without manifesting any peculiar quality from the specific 
herb. E.) In the Amaen. Acad. vol. ii. p. 160 , Linnaeus mentions two cases, wherein an 
essence prepared from this plant, and taken for a considerable time, prevented the forma¬ 
tion of calculous concretions in the kidneys or bladder ; the patients forbearing the use of 
wine and acids. It might be suspected that, like other bitters, its long continued use must 
weaken the action of the nervous system, but in these instances no such effect took place. 
(It is said to have suppressed fits of the gout. E.) An infusion of it given to a woman 
that suckles, makes her milk bitter. It gives a bitterness to the flesh of sheep that eat it. 
Horses and goats dislike it; cows and swine refuse it. Linn. (Livia Absinthii and the 
rare and singularly elegant Plume-moth, Plerophorus spilodactylus , Curt. pi. 161 , are 
found upon it. E.) Turkeys are fond of it. Mr. Hollefear. The plant steeped in boiling 
water, and repeatedly applied to a bruise, will remove the pain in a short time, and prevent 
the swelling and discoloration of the part. Stokes. (This is one of those domestic plants, 
which, associated with mallow, mugwort, hemlock, docks, ore. would seem to follow the 
footsteps of man, thriving amidst dust and rubbish, and to be found wherever a few 
miserable hovels are erected. Ramond and De Candolle observed several of these species 
among the ruins of cottages where shepherds had once lived, high on the Pyrennees ; and 
some years since I remarked, says Mr. Winch, the same circumstance in the Highlands of 
Scotland. “The constant appearance of these weeds about towns and villages is a curious 
and inexplicable phenomenon, for no one ever cultivated such plants for utility, much less 
for ornament. ,, Winch Gcog. Dist. 
