ARTEMISIA, in botany, a genus of plants of the Syngenesia Superflua class and order. Essen. char. receptacle naked or villous ; calyx imbricate, with rounded connivent scales ; florets of the margin subulate, very entire. This genus is se parated into four divisions ; A. shrubs or undershrubs ; of these there are fourteen species : the most remarkable is A. abro tanum, southern-wood, which seldom grows more than three or four feet high. In some gardens, where the soil is well adapted to its nature, it has been seen much higher : but in mountainous situa tions, it is low and slender, with the stems lying on the ground. It is bitter and aro matic, with a very strong smell. It is rarely used in medicine but as an dient in discutient and antiseptic fomen tations. The branches dye wool yellow. B. herbaceous, with the stem quite sim ple; flowers racemed : of these there are ten species. C. herbaceous ; stem more or less branched ; flowers panicled ; leaves compound : there are about forty species of this division, among which is, 1. A. absinthium, common wormwood, a plant well known in this country. It is found wild in almost every part of Eu rope, in rocky places by the road-sides, among rubbish, about farmyards; flow ering from July to October. The leaves and flowers are very bitter, the roots are warm and aromatic. A considerable quantity of oil arises from it in distilla tion, which is used, both externally and internally, to destroy worms. The leaves
put into sour beer destroy the acescency. They resist putrefaction, and are there fore a principal ingredient in antiseptic fomentations. An infusion of them is a good stomachic, and with the addition of a fixed alkali, a powerful diuretic in drop sical cases. The ashes afford a purer alkali than most other vegetables, ex cepting bean-stalks, broom, and the larger trees. 2. A. vulgaris, mugwort, found wild over the greatest part of Europe, China, Japan, &c. on the borders of fields and ditch-banks, by way-sides, in waste places, and about farm-yards. It is used in some countries as a culinary aromatic. A decoction of it is taken by the common people to cure the ague. The moxa of Japan is prepared from this species. The leaves are collected in June, dried in the shade, and beat in a mortar till they become like tow ; this sunstance is then rubbed between the hands, till the harder :fibres and membranes are separated, and there remains nothing but a very fine cot ton. The Japanese use it for tinder, and twice in a year, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, are indiscrimi nately burnt with the moxa, either to prevent disorders, or to cure the rheu matism. D. more or less shrubby; stem branched ; leaves undivided ; there are five species, of which one is A. cazrules cens, tarragon, a capital addition to sal lads, and much used in France.