Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 1440. Cl. 5. Ord. 2. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbelliferae. G. 547. Fruit ovate, striated. Partial umbels four. Involucre four-cleft. Sp. 1. C. Cyminum.2 Cumin. Med. Pot. 3d edit. 143. t. 56. Officinal. Cyminum, Lond. Cumin seed.

Syn. Cumin (F.), Romischen Kumel (G.), Komyn (Dutch), Kummen (Dan.), Spis Kummen ( Swed.), Semenza di Comino ( f.), Semilla de Comino (S.), Kmin (Polish), Siragum (Tarn.), Zereh (Pers.), Jantan (Malay), Kimoon (Arab.), lira (H.), Iiraca (San.), Jeera (Beng.).

This plant is an annual, a native of Egypt, but cultivated in great abundance in Sicily and Malta; whence the seeds are brought to this country. It flowers in June. It rises eight or ten inches in height, on a slender, round, often procumbent, branching stem. The leaves are of a deep green colour, narrow, linear, and pointed; the flowers purple, in numerous four-rayed umbels; with umbellets having seldom more than four flowers. Both the involucres and involucels consist of three or four subulate unequal leaflets. The corolla is composed of five unequal petals, inflected, and notched at the apex; the filaments support simple anthers; and the germen is inferior, large, ovate, with two minute styles terminated by simple stigmas. The fruit consists of two oblong, striated seeds, united by their flat sides, of a pale brown colour, bristly on their convex surface.

1 Leqons faisant partie des Cours de Mid.

Dioscondis.

Legale, de M. Orfila.

Qualities.-Cumin seeds have a strong, peculiar, heavy odour, and a warm, bitterish, disagreeable taste. Water extracts little more than their odour; but alcohol takes up both odour and taste; and yields, when evaporated, an extract containing the sensible qualities of the seeds. In distillation with water, a large proportion of yellow, pungent, volatile oil comes over, which has the strong ungrateful odour of the seeds.

Medical properties and uses.-Cumin seeds are carminative and stomachic; but they are chiefly employed as an external stimulant in discussing indolent tumours.