TANACETUM vulgare.
Common Tansy.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-superjlua.
G en. Char. Recept. naked. Seeds crowned. Cal.
imbricated, hemispherical. Florets of the radius
three-cleft, obsolete; sometimes wanting.
Spec. Char. Leaves doubly pinnatifid, deeply serrated,
naked.
Syn. Tanacetum vulgare. Linn. Sp. PI. 1184. Sm.
FI. Brit. 862. Finds. 357. With. 708. Hull. 182.
Relh. 321. Sibth. 249. Abbot. 179. Woodv. Med.
Bot. 1. 115.
Tanacetum. Rail Syn. 188.
T h i s well-known plant not unffequently occurs in hilly
pastures and by road sides, generally in large patches, flowering
jrt July and August. It abounds on Newmarket heath, where
our specimen was gathered.
Root perennial, creeping. Stems erect, a foot or two in
height, scarcely branched, leafy, angular. Leaves numerous,
alternate, clasping the stem, spreading but little, deeply divided
into numerous, uniform, oblong, deeply serrated lobes,
all naked or destitute of pubescence, except occasionally underneath,
though harsh and rough to the touch. Flowers in a
terminal flat corymbus, of a full uniform yellow, hemispherical.
Perfect florets of the disk tubular, 5-cleft, very numerous
; those of the radius few, ligulate, tipped with 3 teeth,
but often wanting, and when present so short and inconspicuous
as not to be observable without attention. Seeds obovate,
each bearing a 5-sided chaffy crown.
The whole plant is very bitter, and exhales a peculiar strong
scent. It is recommended in several disorders as a tonic and
cordial, as well as to expel worms. It also serves to give its
flavour to a kind of rich pudding, now grown obsolete in England,
and seldom seen but at corporation feasts.
A curled variety, noticed by Dillenius, is now and then seen
in gardens, and is esteemed more grateful to the stomach than
the wild plant.