450 
P I M 
PIMP,/. One who provides gratifications for the luft 
of others ; a procurer; a pander : 
Lords keep a pimp to bring a wench : 
So men of wit are but a kind 
Of panders to a vicious mind ; 
Who proper objects muft provide 
To gratify their luft of pride. Swift. 
To PIMP, v. n. To provide gratifications for the luft 
of others; to pander; to procure: 
But he’s pofi'eft with a thoufand imps, 
To work whofe ends his madnefs pimps. Swift. 
PIMP'-TENURE,/. Avery fingular kind of tenure 
mentioned in our old writers, “ Willielmus Hoppelhort 
tenet dimidiam virgatam terras, per fervitium cuftodiendi 
fex damifellas, fcil. meretrices, ad ufurn domini regis.” 
12 Ed. I. 
PIM'PELGONG, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar 
of Kitchwara: fifteen miles eaft of Saurungpour. 
PIM'PERN, a village in Dorfetlhire, two miles from 
Blandford, formerly of note, as it gave its name to the 
hundred. In this pariftr was a remarkable piece of anti¬ 
quity called Julian’s bower, a maze or labyrinth, made of 
banks of earth about a foot high, and covered an acre of 
ground ; but was deftroyed, by the plough, in 1730. The 
church is an ancient ftru£ture. Its doors bear evident 
marks of Saxon architefture. The font is very antique, 
and the church-yard has feveral ancient coffin-fhaped 
grave-ftones. Chriftopher Pitt, the tranflator of Virgil, 
was redtor of Pimpern; as was George Bingham, who 
replied to Lindfay’s Apology, and was buried here in the 
year 1800. 
PIM'PERNEL, f. [pimpernella, Lat.] A plant. For 
the different plants to which the name of pimpernel has 
been given, fee the articles Anacallis, Lysimachia, 
Samolus, and Veronica. 
PIMPINEL'LA,/. [fuppofed by Ambrofinus, whofe 
opinion is adopted by Linnseus, to be a corruption of bi- 
pinella or bipennula , words expreffive of the pinnate or fea¬ 
ther-like ftruffure of the foliage.] Burnet Saxifrage ; 
in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order digynia, 
natural order of umbellatse or umbelliferse. Generic 
characters—Calyx: umbel univerfal, of many rays : par¬ 
tial of ftill more. Involucre, univerfal none, partial 
none. Perianthiuin proper, fcarcely obfervable. Co¬ 
rolla: univerfal, almoft uniform; florets all fertile; pro¬ 
per, petals five, inflex cordate, almoft equal. Stamina : 
filaments five, Ample, longer than the corollet; antherae 
roundilh. Piftillum : germ inferior; ftyles two, very 
fhort; ftigmas fubglobular. Pericarpium none; fruit 
ovate-oblong, bipartile. Seeds two, oblong, narrower to¬ 
wards the top. on one fide convex and ftriated, on the 
other flat.— Ejfential CharaEler. Petals bent in ; ftigma 
fubglobular; fruit ovate-oblong. There are nine fpecies, 
befides varieties. 
1. Pimpinella faxifraga, or common burnet faxifrage: 
leaves pinnate ; root-leaves roundilh, uppermoft linear. 
Root perennial, ftrong woody highly aromatic and pun¬ 
gent; to fome perfons not unplenfant, efpecially when 
dry. Stems about a foot high, eredt, flender, rigid, round, 
ftriated and roughiffi, varying much in luxuriance, gene¬ 
rally branched above. Leaves on long footftalks, veiny, 
roughiffi, and rigid ; the leaflets of the firft root-leaves 
roundifli or ovate, acutely ferrate, and generally deeply 
notched, efpecially that at the end ; the other leaves are 
compofed of decurrent, linear, often falcated, fometimes 
twice-pinnatifid, leaflets; thofe which grow high on the 
ftem being the narroweft and moll fimple, and their com¬ 
mon footftalk more membranous and dilated than in the 
reft, umbels drooping when young. Flowers fmall, 
white, with long ftamina: top of the germ very tumid 
and reddilh. Styles fhort. Seeds fmall. Common bur- 
net faxifrage is a native of molt parts of Europe, in dry 
P I M 
gravelly or calcareous paftures ; flowering from midfutn- 
mer through the autumn. 
There is a wonderful diverfity in the fize and foliage 
of this fpecies. It often happens that the root-leaves 
become like thofe of the ftem, and then it has been fup¬ 
pofed to be a diftinct fpecies. We lhall not attempt to 
follow this Proteus through all its changes: and have 
only given above our common fort, by fome called 
P. faxifraga minor, together with the nigra and the dif- 
Jefta, which are fet down by fome for diftindt fpecies. 
@. Mr. Miller fays, that the feeds of the P. nigra, or 
black-rooted German burnet-faxifrage,were fent him from 
Paris by Bernard de Juflieu : that the lower leaves are 
compofed of fix or feven pairs of leaflets, terminated by 
an odd one; that they are heart-lhaped, almoft two inches 
long, and an inch and a half broad near the bafe, hairy, 
and of a pale green; that the ftalk rifes near two feet 
high, dividing into feveral branches, which have one nar¬ 
row five-pointed leaf at each joint, and are terminated by 
umbels of white flowers, like thole of P. magna, N° 2, of 
which this may perhaps rather be a variety. Willdenow 
diftinguiflies it by the pubefcence of the ftem and leaves ; 
the root-leaflets are fubcordate,ga(hed, blunt, and toothed; 
the ftem-leaves bipinnate and linear; the root, when cut 
or wounded, pours out a blue milky liquor. It is a na¬ 
tive of Germany, in dry foils. 
y. P. diffedta. Retzius, who has figured this, fays, that 
the root-leaves of the firft year are entirely pinnate, and 
the pinnas roundilh ; bur, when thefe decay, the pinnas 
are all many-parted, and the fegments fubfalcated and 
acute. He remarks farther, that in a garden it grows 
taller, and the ftem is ftiffer, but in other refpedts it does 
not undergo any change. It is a native of Germany and 
Sweden. We have it alfo in England. It is the fifth 
variety of Withering, who defcribes the “ root-leaves as 
doubly-winged, the leafits wing-cleft, with entire feg* 
ments ; ftem-leaves doubly-winged, with entire leafits ; 
floral-leaves cloven at the end.” He diftinguilhes four 
other varieties. 
S. With all the leafits egg-lhaped, ferrate. 
£. Leafits on the root-leaves egg-lhaped, ferrate; thofe 
on the ftem-leaves ftrap-fhaped (linear), moftly entire; 
floral-leaves ftrap-lhaped. This is figured by Jacquin. 
£. Leafits on the root-leaves egg-lhaped, ferrate ; on the 
lower ftem-leaves deeply wing-cleft, floral-leaves winged. 
Figured in Flor. Dan. 669, 
ri. All the leaves doubly winged; leafits ftrap-lhaped, 
moftly entire; floral-leaves winged. From Mr. Relhan. 
This variety belongs rather to P. magna. 
All the above varieties, he adds, are probably occafioned 
by the different age of the plant, and the greater or lefs 
expanfion of its foliage, according to the foil in which it 
grows. It is probable that the firft root-leaves are the 
lame in all; that is, limply-winged, the leafits egg-lhaped 
and ferrate; when thefe difappear, the lower leaves have 
wing-cleft or doubly-winged leaves, and the upper leaves 
become alfo more compound than the reft. 
2. Pimpinella magna, or great burnet-faxifrage: 
leaves pinnate ; leaflets ovate ; the terminating one three- 
lobed. Root perennial, woody, like that ol P. faxifraga 
in flavour, but rather weaker. Stem two feet or more in 
height, round, ftriated. Leaves on rather (liorter foot¬ 
ftalks than in the preceding, pinnated, but of fewer leaf¬ 
lets (fcarcely more than three pairs), and thole larger, 
ovate or ovate-lanceolate, the terminating one more or 
lefs deeply three-cleft, and all ftrongly lerrated. Some¬ 
times, it is faid, the upper leaves are deeply pinnatifid, 
but that is not generally the cale. Flowers commonly 
white, about the fize of the laft, and like them in Itruc- 
ture ; but in alpine fituations they often become rofe- 
coloured. The Item-leaves are gradually narrower as 
they are higher up; at length linear and almoft entire. 
The univerfal umbel has fourteen, the partial from ten 
to eighteen, rays; in the preceding both have from eight 
to- 
