DILL and FENNEL: A genus of the digyny order, belonging to the pentandria clas of plants; and, in the natural method, ranking under the 4th order, Umbellate. The essential characters are: The fruit is oval, compressed, striated; and the petals (five) are involute, entire, and very short.

Species. 1. The graveolens, or dill, is an annual plant: the root is long, slender, and white: the leaves are divided into a multitude of fine, long, narrow segments like those of fennel, but of a bluish green colour, and less strong smell. The stalk is round and firm, growing to the height of four feet, with yellow flowers in moderately large umbels. 2. The feniculum, or fennel; of which there are two varieties, the common and the sweet. The sweet fennel is smaller in all its parts than the common, except the seeds, which are considerably larger. The seeds of the two sorts differ likewise in shape and colour; those of the common are roundish, oblong, flattish on one side, and protuberant on the other, of a dark almost blackish colour; those of the sweet are longer, narrower, not so flat, generally crooked, and of a whitish or pale yellowish colour. Both sorts are cultivated in our gardens: the common is a perennial plant: the sweet fennel perishes after it has given seed; nor do its seeds come to such perfection in this climate as those which we receive from Germany.

Medicinal Uses. 1. Of the first species, dill, only the seeds are used. They are of a pale yellowish colour, in shape nearly oval, convex on one side, and flat on the other. Their taste is moderately warm and pungent; their smell aromatic, but not of the most agreeable kind. Several preparations of them are kept in the shops. They are recommended as a carminative, in flatulent colics, proceeding from a cold cause or a viscidity of the juices.—2. Of fennel both the seeds and roots are used in medicine. The seeds of both the fennels have an aromatic smell, and a moderately warm pungent taste: those of the sweet fennel are in flavour most agreeable, and have also a considerable degree of sweetness; hence our colleges have directed the use of these only. They are ranked among the four greater hot seeds, and not undeservedly looked upon as good stomachics and carminatives. A simple water is prepared from them in the shops; they are ingredients also in the compound spirit of juniper, and some other officinal compositions. The root is far less warm, but has more of a sweetish taste, than the seeds: it is one of the five roots called openers; and has sometimes been directed in aperient apozems. Boerhaave says, that this root agrees in taste, smell, and medical qualities, with the celebrated gineng of the Chinese; from which, however, it appears to be very considerably different.—The leaves of fennel are weaker than either the roots or seeds, and have very rarely been employed for any medicinal use.