Artemisia

a genus of acrid, bitter, composite plants, so named by Linnaeus. The genus is named for Artemisia, the queen of Caria, who built the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The worm-wood, the southernwood or oldman, the mugwort, and the sage bushes of the alkaline plains are all related species. An exceedingly bitter, greenish, highly aromatic French liqueur, called absinthe, is produced by steeping wormwood in alcohol and then redistilling. Its excessive use produces vertigo and epilepsy. An alpine artemisia furnishes a yellow dye. The distillation of wormwood oil is carried on in several states of the Union, notably New York, Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. The shrub is cultivated in rows like corn. The shoots are cut for distillation several seasons in succession. The oil is a dark greenish heavy oil. The yield does not exceed ten pounds of oil to the acre. See Absinthe; Sagebrush