Berw. v. i. p. 71. — Winch’s FI. of Northurub. and Duvh. p. 20. — Walker’s FI. of 
Oxf. p. 83. — Lindl. FI. Med. p. 38. — Bab. FI. Bath. p. 21. ; Prim. FI. Sam. p. 43. — 
Dick. FI. Abred. p. 30. — Irv. Lond. FI. p. 195. — Luxf. Reig. FI. p. 24. — Cow. FI. 
Guide, p. 41. — Leight. FI. Shropsh. p. 130. — Mack. Catal. PI. of Irel. p. 30. ; FI. 
Hibern. p. 122. — Pimpinella minor, Gray’s Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 511. — Pimpinella 
saxifraga minor, Bauh. Pin. p. 160. — Ray’s Syu. p. 213. — Pimpinella saxi- 
fraga minor foliis sanguisorba , Ray’s Syu. p. 213. — Bipinella, sive saxifraga 
minor, Johnson’s Gerarde, p. 1044. 
Localities. — In dry pastures, on banks, and on rocks, in a sandy, gravelly, or 
chalky soil ; not uncommon. 
Perennial. — Flowers in July and August. 
Root spindle-shaped, tough and woody, highly aromatic and 
pungent, not unpleasant, especially when dry. Stems from 1 to 2 
feet high, upright, solid, cylindrical, striated, downy, leafy, varying 
much in luxuriance, usually branched above. Leaves on longish 
petioles, oblong, pinnate, veiny, roughish and rigid ; leaflets of the 
root-leaves roundish egg-shaped, deeply serrated and cut ; those of 
the upper leaves, and sometimes of all, simply or doubly pinnatifid, 
with acute, spreading, decurrent segments (see fig. 4). Umbels 
terminal, flattish, of many general and partial smooth rays, droop- 
ing when young, without any involucrum. Flowers white, small, 
nearly equal. Stamens long. Styles not quite so long as the germen, 
their tumid bases reddish. Fruit small, egg-shaped, ribbed. 
This species is a native throughout the whole of Europe, Tauria, 
Caucasus, and Persia. The great diversity in its size, and also in 
the form and divisions of its foliage, has occasioned some authors to 
make several species of it. The principal varieties found with us 
are the following : — 
a. Poteriifolia. Root-leaves pinnate; leaflets egg-shaped, roundish at the 
base, entire, deeply serrated or cut. See the accompanying plate. 
0. Intermedia. Root-leaves pinnate ; leaflets egg-shaped, deeply and pin- 
natifidly cut, lobes egg-shaped, deeply serrated. 
y. Dissecta. Root-leaves pinnate; leaflets egg-shaped, bipinnatifid, seg- 
ments intire (fig. 4). P. 8. Dissecta. Silrth. FI. Oxon p. 102. Abbot’s FI. Bedf. 
p.68. — Gray’s Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 512. — Lindl. FI. Med. p. 38. 
Dr. Withering remarks, that these varieties are occasioned by 
the different age of the plant, and the greater or lesser expansion of 
its foliage according to the soil in which it grows. He suggests, it 
is probable that the first root-leaves are the same in all, that is, 
simply winged, the leaflets egg-shaped and serrated ; that when 
these disappear, the lower leaves have wing-cleft, or doubly winged 
leaves, and the upper leaves become also more compound with the 
rest. All these varieties may occasionally be found growing toge- 
ther in the same locality. 
The root, which is very acrid and astringent, is used as a masticatory to re- 
lieve the toothache, and in decoction to remove freckles. It affords a blue essen- 
tial oil, and communicates that colour to water or spirit on distillation. A species 
of coccus, from which colouring matter may be procured, infests the roots. The 
Papilio Machaon, or Swallow-tailed Butterfly, one of the largest and most 
superb of all the British Lepidopterm, is sometimes found on this plant, on 
which, and on some other of the umbellifeite, the caterpiller feeds. 
