1 Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 1469. Cl. 5. Ord. 2. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbelliferae. G. 5G0. Fruit nearly ovate, compressed, striated. Pet. involuted entire. Species 1. A. graveolens. Common Dill. Med. Pot. 2d edit. 125. t. 48.

1. Anethum graveolens.

Officinal. Anethum, Lond. Anethi Semina, Edin, Dill seed.

Dioscoridis.

Syn. Fenouil puant, ou persil odorant (F.), Dill (G.), Dille (Belg.), Dil {Dan.), Dill {Swed.), Kopr {Polish), Endro (Portug.), Eneldo de olor pesado (S.), Appio palustre, sellano, Sellero (/.)> Sadacoopei {Tarn.), Sowa {Hind.), Moongsi {Javanese), Buzralshibbet {Arab.).

This plant is an annual, a native of Spain and Portugal, growing generally in corn fields, and flowering in June and July. It is cultivated in this country.1 The root is fusiform and long, striking deep into the ground; and sending up several erect, striated, jointed stems, about two feet in height, and branched. The leaves are glaucous and odorous, upon sheathing foot-stalks; doubly pinnated, with the pinnae linear and pointed. The flowers are in large, flat, terminal umbels, without either universal or partial involucrum; the corolla consists of five ovate, obtuse, concave, yellow petals, with the apexes inflected, the filaments yellow, and longer than the corolla; with an inferior germen, covered by the nectary, and supporting two short styles, terminated by obtuse stigmas.

The seeds of dill, which are the parts of the plant medicinally used, are scarcely the length of a carraway seed, but broader and flatter. They are oval, concave on one side, convex and striated on the other; of a brown colour, and surrounded with a dull pale-yellow or straw-coloured membranous expansion. When good, they are heavy, of a bright colour, and an aromatic odour.

Qualities.-The dried seeds have an aromatic, sweetish odour, not very agreeable, nor yet unpleasant; the taste is moderately warm and pungent. These qualities depend on a volatile oil, which is extracted by distillation with water, (according to Mr. Brande, in the proportion of 2 lb. to 1 cwt.2) and imparted to alcohol by digestion. The bruised seeds yield their flavour to boiling water by infusion.

Medical properties and uses.-Dill seeds are carminative and stomachic. They are scarcely ever employed except in hiccough and the flatulent colic of infants. The dose of the powdered seed is from grs. x. to 3 j.

Officinal preparations.-Aqua anethi, L.