and the soils in
the warmer parts of the northern states appear to be favorable to the
commercial cultivation of anise, which it seems should prove a
profitable crop under proper management.

_Uses._--The leaves are frequently employed as a garnish, for flavoring
salads, and to a small extent as potherbs. Far more general, however, is
the use of the seeds, which enter as a flavoring into various
condiments, especially curry powders, many kinds of cake, pastry, and
confectionery and into some kinds of cheese and bread. Anise oil is
extensively employed for flavoring many beverages both alcoholic and
non-spirituous and for disguising the unpleasant flavors of various
drugs. The seeds are also ground and compounded with other fragrant
materials for making sachet powders, and the oil mixed with other fluids
for liquid perfumes. Various similar anise combinations are largely used
in perfuming soaps, pomatums and other toilet articles. The very
volatile, nearly colorless oil is usually obtained by distillation with
water, about 50 pounds of seed being required to produce one pound of
oil. At Erfurt, Germany, where much of the commercial oil is made, the
"hay" and the seeds are both used for distilling.

=Balm= (_Melissa officinalis_, Linn.), a perennial herb of the natural
order Labiatae. The popular name is a contraction of _balsam_, the plant
having formerly been considered a specific for a host of ailments. The
generic name, _Melissa_, is the Greek for _bee_ and is an allusion to
the fondness of bees for the abundant nectar of the flowers.

Balm is a native of southern Europe, where it was cultivated as a source
of honey and as a sweet herb more than 2,000 years ago. It is frequently
mentioned in Greek and Latin poetry and prose. Because of its use for
anointing, Shakespeare referred to it in the glorious lines (King
Richard II., act iii, scene 2):

"Not all the water in the rough, rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king."

As a useful plant it received attention from the pen of Pliny. From its
home it has been introduced by man as a garden plant into nearly all
temperate climates throughout the world, and is often found as an escape
from gardens where introduced--occasionally in this role in the earliest
settled of the United States. Very few well-marked varieties have been
produced. A variegated one, now grown for ornament as well as for
culinary purposes, is probably the same as that mentioned by Mawe