1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wormwood

WORMWOOD, the popular name for an aromatic herb known botanically as Artemisia Absinthium, a member of the family Compositae. It grows from 1 to 3 ft. high and is silkily hairy; the leaves are small and much cut, and the flowers are small yellow hemispherical heads among the leaves at the end of the branches. It grows in waste places. It is a tonic and vermifuge and used to flavour drinks. A closely allied species is A. vulgaris, mugwort, also an aromatic herb, with larger and broader leaves, which are white wooly beneath, and erect wooly heads of reddish-yellow flowers.