Artemisia, a genus of plants of the order compositœ, noted for bitter, tonic, or aromatic properties. A. absinthium, or wormwood, is a perennial plant with woody stems in clusters two or three feet high, with long-petioled, irregularly pinnatifid, silvery leaves, and small, clustered, inconspicuous flowers. Its common name is derived from its virtues as an anthelmintic. A. abrotanum, or southernwood, is cultivated in gardens for its aromatic foliage, and much used in Europe in beer making. A. dracunculus or tarragon, a native of Siberia, is used in pickles for flavoring. A. Chinensis or moxa produces a woolly substance on the stems and leaves which is used by the Chinese and Japanese as a moxa by burning it upon parts of the body affected with gout or rheumatism. A. Ludoviciana is the common sage bush of the American plains, and is a low irregular shrub, with thick, crooked stems, growing in dry alkaline soils, which unless irrigated will produce little else. Its strong odor may be noticed at some distance away. With greasewood it serves as the principal if not the only fuel on the plains. All artemisias are easily propagated by seeds or divisions of the roots.