Fennel (Feeniculum offi cinale, All.). Umbel 17:fertc. (G. F. Klugh.) Fennel is an herba ceous perennial of the parsnip family, native to the Old World, grown for its aromatic fruit, and in India and Japan for its edible root. It is grown in central Europe and in the Mediterranean coun tries as well as in Japan and India, and sparingly in the United States as a garden herb. The fleshy root-stem of fennel gives rise to stout, smooth, suc culent stems reaching a height of three feet, which bear the dark green, finely dissected aromatic leaves and numerous very small yellow flowers in branching, umbel-like, terminal clusters ; the fruits, ripened in late summer, are about one-third inch long, conspicuously ribbed and have the pleas ant fragrance characteristic of plants containing anethol.
Fennel does well on a moderately rich, well drained loam or sandy loam, a heavy wet soil giving too much leaf and stem and too little fruit. It is sown in three-foot drills as soon in the spring as the ground is ready for garden planting, about five pounds of seed being used per acre. It is cultivated as an ordinary garden crop. The fruit ripens in the fall and is gathered at once in order to pre serve a fresh, bright appearance. It is less desir able for the market if allowed to turn dark. After it is dry it can be cleaned of the immature fruit, some of which is unavoidably collected, since all fruits do not mature simultaneously.
The aromatic flavor is due to a volatile oil pres ent in the ribs of the fruits. This oil is obtained by distillation with steam, a yield of 4 to 5 per cent being obtained. The fruit remaining after distilla tion is used in some parts of Germany as a food for cattle.
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, Linn.). Scrophula riareir. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 685.
Foxglove is a tall biennial herb with fibrous root system, and in the second year a straight stem bearing a long, unbranched raceme of large, two inch long, showy, bell-shaped to funnel-formed flowers, purplish with darker spots in the throat, or nearly white, and a luxuriant development of alternate, sessile, woolly leaves, with venation con spicuous on the under side, crenate margins, largest toward the base of the stem, decreasing upwards to the base of the flower-bearing part of the stem. The dry seed-pods contain a multitude of minute seeds. The flowers open in the early summer of the second year. At the end of the first season's growth a strong rosette of radical leaves is seen. Leaves of the second year's growth form an important article in crude drug commerce. The demand of the United States is at present satisfied from Eng lish, German and Austrian sources chiefly, where the plant is cultivated for the purpose or occurs wild.
Since the seeds are very small, they require good conditions of germination to produce a good stand of plants if sown in the field, but they may be grown where they are to stand or in seed-beds and transplanted. The soil most adapted to the growth of foxglove is a good garden loam con taining a liberal amount of sand and humus, but the plant will do well on heavier soils if transplanted.
Good drainage is essential to keep the plants from damping off in hot weather and freezing out in winter. The rows should he three feet apart, the plants be ing fifteen to eighteen inches apart in the rows. A garden drill may be used to sow the seed, two pounds being required per acre. If planted too deep the seed will re main in the soil until turned up by subse quent cultivation.
Early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked, is the best time for planting.
Frequent cultivation is desirable during the growing season of both first and second years until the plant flowers in June of the second year. The leaves around the bases of the flowering stalks are then picked and dried in the shade to preserve their green color. The yield of leaves from an acre of good soil well fertilized and cared for will be about five hundred or six hundred pounds. The relation of fertilizers to yield and content of active principle is an open question here as with other drugs.
Golden seal (Hydrustis Canadensis, Linn.). Ranun culacete. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 686.
A low, perennial-rooted herb with a stout, strongly-rooted rhizome of a golden yellow color when broken, sending up a slender stem about a foot high, which bears one or two alternate, five to seven-lobed leaves, the leaves with a short petiole, the upper sessile, and a large basal leaf of similar general outline ; the single, whitish, incon spicuous flower is borne terminally above the upper leaf on a short peduncle ; the fruit is somewhat pulpy when ripe and in general appearance is sug gestive of a small red raspberry. This plant is a native of the rich woods of the Appalachian region, Ohio valley and northward to southern Wisconsin. It has long been used in medicine and in recent years to an increasing degree. As a result it has become relatively rare in commercial quantities and its cultivation has been made a subject of in vestigation by the United States Department of Agriculture. The culture of golden seal is now widely practiced in small gardens.