Pyrethrum

Feverfew. In botany, a genus of the cia syngenesia, order polygamia superflua. Receptacle naked; seeds crowned with a membranaceous margin; calyx hemispherical, imbricate; the scales rather acute and scarious on the margin. ‘Twenty-six species, scattered over the globe; two of them common to our own wastes or sea-coasis, They may be thus subdivided: A. Ray of the flower white. B. Ray of the flower yellow. The ancient Romans, we are told, employed the root of this plant as a pickle. In its recent State it is not so pungent as when dried, yet if applied to the skin, it is said to produce inflammation. Its qualities are stimulant; but it is never used, except as a masticatory, for relieving tooth-achs, rheumatic affections of the face, and paralysis of the tongue, in which it affords relief by stimulating the excretory ducts of the salival glands.