The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Wormwood
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WORMWOOD.
Artemísia absínthium.—Absinthe, Fr.—Wermuth, Ger.
It is a hardy perennial, and may be propagated by slips, in March or October, or raised from seeds sown after they are ripe. The leaves have a strong, offensive smell, and a very bitter, nauseous taste; the flower equally bitter, but less nauseous. Wormwood is a moderately warm stomachic and corroborant, and for these purposes it was formerly in common use, but it has now given place to bitters of a less ungrateful kind. Wormwood was formerly much used by brewers instead of Hops, to give the bitter taste to their malt liquors, and to preserve them. This plant very powerfully resists putrefaction, and is made a principal ingredient in antiseptic fomentations.