botany: A genus of the order of polygania aquilis, belonging to the fingenia class of plants, and in the natural method ranking under the 49th order, Compositae. The calyx is ovate, imbricated with scales, close below, and augmented with subovate foliaceous appendices at top.—Of this genus there are nine species; but the only remarkable one is the tinctorius, with a saffron-coloured flower. This is a native of Egypt and some of the warm parts of Asia. It is at present cultivated in many parts of Europe, and also in the Levant, from whence great quantities of it are annually imported into Britain for the purposes of dyeing and painting. It is an annual plant, and rises with a stiff ligneous stalk, about two feet and a half or three feet in height, dividing upwards into many branches, garnished with oval pointed leaves fitting close to the branches. The flowers grow single at the extremity of each branch; the heads of the flowers are large, inclosed in a scaly empalement; each scale is broad at the base, flat, and formed like a leaf of the plant, terminating in a sharp spine. The lower part of the empalement spreads open; but the scales above closely embrace the florets, which are of a fine saffron colour, and are the part used for the purposes above mentioned. The good quality of this commodity is in the colour, which is of a bright saffron hue; and in this the British carthamus very often fails; for if there happens much rain during the time the plants are in flower, the flowers change to a dark or dirty yellow, as they likewise do if the flowers are gathered with any moisture remaining upon them.—The plants are propagated by seeds, which should be sown in drills, at two feet and a half distance from one another, in which the seeds should be scattered singly. The plants will appear in less than a month; and in three weeks or a month after, it will be proper to hoe the ground; at which time the plants should be left six inches distant: after this they will require a second hoeing; when they must be thinned to the distance at which they are to remain. If after this they are hoed a third time, they will require no farther care till they come to flower; when, if the safflower is intended for use, the florets should be cut off from the flowers as they come to perfection: but this must be performed when they are perfectly dry; and then they should be dried in a kiln with a moderate fire, in the same manner as the true saffron. But in those flowers which are propagated for seeds, the Carthusians florets must be cut off, or the seeds will prove abortive.—The seeds of carthamus have been celebrated as a cathartic; but they operate very slowly, and for the most part disorder the stomach and bowels, especially when given in substance: triturated with distilled aromatic waters, they form an emulsion less offensive, yet inferior in efficacy to the more common purgatives. They are eaten by a species of Egyptian parrot, which is very fond of them; to other birds or beasts they would prove a mortal poison.