tansy, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the class of Syngenesia, and order of Polygamia superflua; and in the natural system ranging under the 49th order, Compositae. The receptacle is naked; the pappus somewhat emarginated; the calyx imbricated and hemispherical; the florets of the radius are trifid, and scarcely distinguishable. Gmelin has enumerated seven species; of which one only is a native of Britain, the vulgaris.

The vulgaris, or common tansy, grows three or four feet high; the leaves are bipinnate and serrated; the flowers yellow, and terminate the branches in flat umbels. It is found sometimes on the borders of fields and dry banks: it abounds at Wark, and Ford-castle in the neighbourhood of Kelso, on the borders of Scotland; and on the side of Garve-loch on the western coast of Ross-shire; it has also been found in Breadalbane. It flowers generally in August. Of this species there is a variety with curled leaves, which is therefore called curled tansy. The tansy has a bitter taste, and an aromatic smell disagreeable to many people.

Uses. It is esteemed good for warming and strengthening the stomach; for which reason the young leaves have obtained a place among the culinary herbs, their juice being an ingredient in puddings, &c. It is rarely used in medicine, though extolled as a good emmenagogue. A drachm of the dried flowers has been found very beneficial in hysterical disorders arising from suppression. The seeds and leaves were formerly in considerable esteem for destroying worms in children, and are reckoned good in colics and flatulencies. In some parts of Sweden and Lapland, a bath with a decoction of this plant is made use of to assist parturition. See PHARMACY, no. 193.

TANECIUM, in botany: A genus of the angiosperma order, belonging to the diynamia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 25th order, Putaminos. The calyx is monophyllous, tubulated, truncated, and entire; the corolla long, monopetalous, and white; the tube cylindrical; the stamens erect, spreading, and nearly equal; the fruit a berry covered with a thick bark, large, oblong, internally divided into two parts; in the pulp are contained a number of seeds. There are only two species of this genus; the jaroba and paraficum, both natives of Jamaica. They grow by the sides of rivers, and climb on trees and bushes.