History—The identification of the chamomile in the classical and other ancient authors seems to be impossible, on account of the large number of allied plants having similar inflorescence.
The chamomile has been cultivated for centuries in English gardens, the flowers being a common domestic medicine. The double variety was well known in the 16th century.
The plant was introduced, according to Gesner, into Germany from Spain about the close of the middle ages. Tragus first designated it Chamomilla nobilis,[1423] and Joachim Camerarius (1598), who had observed its abundance near Rome, gave it the name of Roman Chamomile.
Porta, about the year 1604,[1424] states that 100 pounds of Flores Chamœmeli yielded 2 drachmæ of a green volatile oil; we suppose he distilled the flowers under notice.
Production—The camomile is cultivated at Mitcham, near London, the land applied to this purpose being in 1864 about 55 acres, and the yield reckoned at about 4 cwt. per acre. The flowers are carefully gathered, and dried by artificial heat; and fetch a high price in the market.[1425]
The plant is grown on a large scale at Kieritzsch, between Leipzig and Altenburg, and near Zeiz and Borna, all in Saxony; and likewise to some extent in Belgium and France.
Description—The chamomile flowers found in commerce are never those of the wild plant, but are produced by a variety in which the tubular florets have all, or for the greater part been converted into ligulate florets. In the flowers of some localities this conversion has been less complete, and such flowers having a somewhat yellow centre, are called by druggists Single Chamomiles; while those in which all the florets are ligulate and white, are known as Double Chamomiles.
Chamomile flowers have the general structure found in the order Compositæ. They are ½ to ¾ of an inch across, and consist of a hemispherical involucre about ⅜ of an inch in diameter, composed of a number of nearly equal bracts, scarious at the margin. The receptacle is solid, conical, about ¼ of an inch in height, beset with thin, concave, blunt, narrow, chaffy scales, from the bases of which grow the numerous florets. In the wild plant, the outer of these, to the number of 12 or more, are white, narrow, strap-shaped, and slightly toothed at the apex. The central or disc florets are yellow and tubular, with a somewhat bell-shaped summit from which project the two reflexed stigmas. In the cultivated plant, the ligulate florets predominate, or replace entirely the tubular. The florets which are wholly destitute of pappus are reflexed, so that the capitulum when dried has the aspect of a little white ball. Minute oil-glands are sparingly scattered over the tubular portion of the florets of either kind. The flowers of chamomile, as well as the green parts of the plant, have a strong aroma, and a very bitter taste.
In trade, dried chamomile flowers are esteemed in proportion as they are of large size, very double, and of a good white—the last named quality being due in great measure to fine dry weather during the flowering period. Flowers that are buff or brownish, or only partially double, command a lower price.
Chemical Composition—Chamomile flowers yield from 0·6 to 0·8 per cent. of essential oil,[1426] which is at first of a pale blue, but becomes yellowish-brown in the course of a few months.