Opopanax was very common in old pharmacy, but has fallen out of use, and is now both rare and expensive.[1244]
FRUCTUS ANETHI.
Semen Anethi; Dill Fruits, Dill Seeds; F. Fruits d’Aneth; G. Dillfrüchte.
Botanical Origin—Anethum graveolens L., (Peucedanum[1245] graveolens Hiern) an erect, glaucous annual plant, with finely striated stems, usually to 1 to 1½ feet high, pinnate leaves with setaceous linear segments, and yellow flowers.
It is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, Southern Russia and the Caucasian provinces, but is found as a cornfield weed in many other countries, and is frequently cultivated in gardens. It succeeds in Norway as far north as Throndhjem.
Dill, under the Hindustani name of Suvā or Sōyah, is largely grown in various ports of India, where the plant though of but a few months’ duration, grows to a height of 2 to 3 feet. On account of a slight peculiarity in the fruit, the Indian plant was regarded by Roxburgh and De Candolle as a distinct species, and called Anethum Sowa, but it possesses no botanical characters to warrant its separation from A. graveolens.
History—Dill is commonly regarded to be the Ἄνηθον of Dioscorides, the Anethum of Palladius and other ancient writers, as well as of the New Testament.[1246] In Greece the name Ἄνηθον is at present applied[1247] to a plant of very similar appearance, Carum Ridolfia Benth. et Hook (Anethum segetum L.). By the later Greeks, the term Ἄνηθον was also used for dill.[1248]
Dill, as well as coriander, fennel, cumin, and ammi, was in frequent requisition in Britain in Anglo-Saxon times.[1249] The name is derived according to Prior[1250] from the old Norse word dilla, to lull, in allusion to the reputed carminative properties of the drug. However this may be, we find the word occurring in the 10th century in the Vocabulary of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury.[1251] The words dill and till, undoubtedly meaning this drug, were also used in Germany and Switzerland as early as a.d. 1000.
Description—The fruit, which has the characters usual to Umbelliferæ, is of ovoid form, much compressed dorsally, surrounded with a broad flattened margin. The mericarps about ⅒ of an inch wide, are mostly separate; they are provided with 5 equidistant, filiform ridges, of which the two lateral lose themselves in the paler, broad, thin margin. The three others are sharply keeled; the darkest space between them is occupied by a vitta and two occur on the commissure. In the Indian drug, the mericarps are narrower and more convex, the ridges more distinct and pale, and the border less winged. In other respects it accords with that of Europe. The odour and taste of dill are agreeably aromatic.
Microscopic Characters—The pericarp is formed of a small number of flattened cells, which in the inner layer are of a brown colour; the ridges consist as usual of a strong fibro-vascular bundle. The vittæ in a transverse section present an elliptic outline ¹/₁₄₀ of an inch or less in diameter. The margin of the mericarp is built up of porous, parenchymatous tissue. The albumen as in the seeds of all umbellifers, consists of thick-walled, angular cells, loaded with fatty oil, and globular grains of albuminous matters which present a dark cross when examined by polarized light.