Wormwood.Artemisia Absinthium.
Found during July and August along roads and lanes.
The stalk grows from 2 to 3 feet high, and is branching, and shrubby; its fibre is strong, it is slightly grooved, and silky to the touch. In color silvery green.
The rather small leaf is often divided to the midrib, the divisions being long and narrow; the surface is smooth, with fine silky hairs. Color, silvery green. The leaves are set upon the stalk in clusters, alternately; they have an aromatic scent.
The flowers are very minute, of a pale yellowish-green color, and clustered in small hemispherical heads, in pale green cups; their heads, nodding along the sides of the slender branchlets, form long terminal spires.
This Artemisia, though escaped from the garden, has taken most kindly and naturally to the common road, where its light silvery sheen renders it quite distinct from the surrounding growths. It has an agreeable pungent odor, resembling that of the Chrysanthemum, though much stronger, and it is very bitter to the taste.