264 FAMILY HERBAL. 



inches long. The leaves stand two at each joint, 

 and they are of an oblong figure, considerably 

 broad in the middle, and pointed at the end. The 

 flowers stand singly on long slender foot-stalks ; 

 they are small, hut of a most bright scarlet colour. 



The whole plant is used, and the best method 

 of giving i(, is in an infusion, made by pouring boil- 

 ing water upon it fresh gathered : this is an excel- 

 lent drink in fevers ; it promotes. sweat, and throws 

 out the small pox, measles, or any oihrr eruptions: 

 the dried leaves may be given in powder or a tea 

 made of the whole dried plant, but nothing is so well 

 as the infusion of it fresh, those who have not seen 

 it tried this way do not know how valuable a me- 

 dicine it is. 



There is another kind of pimpernel, perfectly 

 like this, but that the flowers are blue ; this is cal- 

 led the female, and the other the male pimpernel, 

 but the red flowered kind has most virtue. 



The Pine Tree. Pinus. 



A LARGE and beautiful tree, native of Italy, 

 but kept in our gardens. We have a wild kind of 

 pine in the North, called Scotch fir, but it is not 

 the same tree. The trunk of the true pine is cover- 

 ed with a rough brown bark, the branches with a 

 smoother, and more reddish. The leaves are long 

 and slender, and they grow always two from the 

 same base, or out of the same sheath, they are of 

 a bluish green colour, and are a little hollowed on 

 the inside : the flowers arc small and inconsiderable ; 

 they stand in a kind of tufts on the branches ; 

 the fruit are cones of a brown colour, large, long, 

 and blunt at the top. These contain between the 

 scales certain white kernels of a sweet taste, and 

 covered with a thin shell, 



These kernels are tnc part used, and they are ex- 



