320 



PI M 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



P I N 



and like them in structure ; but in alpine situations they 

 often become rose-coloured. There is a variety with the 

 root biennial and branched ; the stem grooved and angular, 

 panicled with branches; flower white; seeds smooth. Found 

 in Austria and the Levant. The root of this plant is very 

 acrid, burning the mouth like pepper. It affords a blue 

 oil : its acrimony has caused it to be employed in order to 

 cure the tooth-ach ; and also for the more important pur- 

 pose of removing freckles from the skin. It is likewise 

 chewed to promote the secretion of saliva, and is used in 

 gargles for dissolving viscid mucus in the throat. The Ger- 

 mans prescribe it for the dropsy and asthma. The seeds are 

 carminative, they disperse wind in the stomach, and are 

 good in colics : the roots are powerfully diuretic, and may 

 be given with advantage in disorders arising from obstructions 

 of the viscera. The roots are best taken in a strong infusion, 

 and the seeds when reduced to powder ; six or seven grains 

 of the latter is a sufficient dose. Native of the south of 

 Europe, Germany, Switzerland, and England. With us it 

 grows chiefly in woods and hedges in a calcareous soil, flow- 

 ering in August, and even later. Ray remarks, that it grows 

 in the woods of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Kent: 

 it has also been observed in Ripton wood in Huntingdonshire ; 

 at Ballard in Worcestershire ; in Hollingshall wood, Leices- 

 tershire ; about Thirsk and Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire ; 

 under the walls of York ; near Clandon Place in Surry ; in 

 Petworth Park ; at Brentwood ; at Greenhithe ; on Hamp- 

 stead Heath ; at Leads near Claremont in Surry ; about 

 Guildford and Godalming; between Wimbledon and Mer- 

 ton; in Stow and Noke woods, Oxfordshire; in Wednesbury 

 field, Staffordshire, with a red flower ; and in the hedges 

 near Maidstone, Kent, with jagged leaves. 



3. Pimpinella Lutea; Yellow Burnet Saxifrage. Leaves 

 pinnate, pubescent; leaflets cordate, toothed, gashed in 

 front; peduncles filiform, panicled. Stem smooth, even, leufy 

 below, leafless above, and branched; peduncles nodding; 

 umbels small ; petals yellow, very small. It flowers in sum- 

 mer, and has an aromatic odour. Native of Mount Atlas. 



4. Pimpinella Glauca. Leaves superdecompound. Stem 

 angular, very much branched; root fusiform, fibrous, brown 

 without, white within ; flowers small, white. Native of Ger- 

 many, France, and Italy. 



5. Pimpinella Capensis ; Cape Burnet Saxifrage. Leaves 

 superdecompound; segments acute; stem striated. Native 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. 



6. Pimpinella Peregrina ; Nodding Burnet Saxifrage. 

 "Root-leaves pinnate, crenate ; upper leaves wedge-form, 

 gashed ; umbels before flowering drooping. Root long, white, 

 and fibrous, of a very sharp taste ; stem solitary, two feet 

 high, striated, and branched above. The flowers are white, 

 and the petals hairy on the back. The fruit is very small, 

 and ovate-roundish, crowned with two spreading styles, and 

 separable into two brown seeds, flat on one side, gibbous and 

 striated on the other, and beset with numerous pale bristles; 

 they have no smell, and when first chewed scarcely any 

 taste, but in a short ti(ne are very acrimonious, and excite a 

 very great heat in the fauces. Native of Italy, Spain, &c. 



7. Pimpinella Anisum ; Anise. Root-leaves trifid, gash- 

 ed; stem-leaves acutely laciniatcd. Root annual; stem afoot 

 and half high, dividing into several slender branches, which 

 have narrow leaves on them cut into three or four narrow seg- 

 ments; flowers small, yellowish-white; seeds oblong, swelling. 

 It flowers in July, and, if the season prove warm, the seeds 

 will ripen in autumn. It is a native of Egypt, but is culti- 

 vated in Malta and Spain, whence the seeds are annually im- 

 ported into England. The seeds have an aromatic smell, and 



a pleasant warm taste, accompanied by a considerable degree 

 of sweetness. In distillation with water, three pounds of them 

 yield an ounce or more of essential oil, which, even when the 

 air is not sensibly cold, congeals into a butyraceous white con- 

 crete. Its smell is very durable and diffusive, and its taste 

 milder and less pungent than almost any other distilled vege- 

 table oils. These seeds likewise yield an oil by expression 

 of a greenish colour and grateful taste, strongly impregnated 

 with the flavour of the seeds: sixteen ounces, slightly moist- 

 ened by exposure to the steam of boiling water, are said to 

 afford one ounce, composed of a gross insipid inodorous 

 oil, of the same nature with common expressed oils, and a 

 part of the essential oil of the seed, on which the flavour 

 depends. The seeds have been long used by physicians as 

 an aromatic and carminative, in preference to those of most 

 other umbellate plants ; they have also been esteemed good 

 in pulmonary complaints, and, like those of Fennel, to pro- 

 mote the secretion of milk. Their chief use, however, is in fla- 

 tulencies, and in the gripes to which children are more espe- 

 cially liable ; and they are combined with such purgatives as 

 are likely to produce these effects: weakness of the stomach, 

 diarrhoeas, and loss of tone in the primse vise, are likewise 

 complaints in which Aniseed are supposed to be peculiarly 

 useful. The essential oil, which is the only officinal prepa- 

 ration now directed by the Pharmacopoeias, is generally 

 grateful to the stomach, and may be taken in the dose of 

 twenty drops. In diseases of the breast, the oil is preferred ; 

 but in flatulencies and colics, the seeds in substance are said 

 to be more effectual. An infusion of them in water quenches 

 thirst, and checks purging. There is a spirituous water dis- 

 tilled from them, and kept in the shops, which may be used 

 for all the above purposes by those who dislike the flavour 

 of the seeds ; and if a glass of it be taken after meals, it 

 assists digestion, and prevents the bad effects which some- 

 times follow a free use of vegetables. The oil is said to be a 

 poison to pigeons. The seeds of this plant should be sown 

 in the beginning of April, upon a warm border, where the 

 plants are to remain ; when they come up, thin them, and 

 keep them clean from weeds. , It is too tender to be culti- 

 vated for profit in our climate. 



8. Pimpinella Dichotoma. Peduncles opposite to the 

 leaves ; floriferous leaves twice trifid ; petioles membrana- 

 ceous, winged. This plant is about a foot high, very much 

 branched, and panicled with numerous white umbels. Native 

 of Spain. 



9. Pimpinella Dioica; Least Burnet Saxifrage. Umbels 

 very numerous, compound, and simple ; flowers dioecous. 

 Root perennial, fusiform, running straight down ; stem from 

 half a cubit to a cubit in height, upright, angular, striated, 

 leafy, smooth, very much branched ; branches patulous ; 

 flowers yellowish or whitish. It flowers in May and June. 

 Native of Austria, Provence, Switzerland, and England, where 

 it has been found upon St. Vincent's rocks, near Bristol, and 

 above Uphill in Somersetshire. 



Pinaster. See Pinus. 



Pine-Apple. See Bromelia. 



Pine-Tree. See Finns. 



Pinguicula ; a genus of the class Diandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth ringent, 

 small, acute, permanent; upper lip erect, trifid; lower reflex, 

 bifid. Corolla: one-petalled, ringent; longer lip straight, 

 blunt, trifid, supine ; shorter lip bifid, blunter, more spread- 

 ing ; nectary awned, produced backwards from the base of 

 the petal. Stamina : filamenta two, cylindrical, curved, 

 ascending, shorter than the calix; antherse roundish, clapped 

 close to the stigma. Pistil: germen globular; style very 



