452 PIN 
twice trifid ; petioies membranaceous-winged. This 
plant is half a foot high, very much branched, dichoto¬ 
mous. Lower leaves triternate ; upper biternate, almoft 
linear, fliorter, acute. Petals white, curved in and ernar- 
ginate. Fruit fubglobular, ftriated. Native of Spain. 
q. Pimpinella dioica, or leaft burnet-faxifrage : dwarf, 
umbels very numerous, compound and Ample; flowers 
dioecous. Root perennial, fufiform, running ftraight 
down, fomewhat branched at the bafe, with a villofe 
head. Stem from half a cubit to a cubit in height, up¬ 
right, angular, ftriated, leafy, frnooth, very much 
branched; branches patulous. Flowers yellowilh or whi- 
tifh, dioecous. Petals equal. The male flowers have no 
piltil; the female flowers have antheras, but they are bar¬ 
ren. Mr. Swayne remarks, that the male plant has a yel¬ 
low ficldy appearance. There is a male and an herma¬ 
phrodite plant. It is nearly allied to P. glauca, or of a 
diftindl genus. 
Miller fays it is a biennial plant, perilhing foon after 
it has perfefted its feeds : leaves fhort and very narrow, 
fpreading near the ground: ftems near a foot high, 
branched almoft from the bottom ; the branches are al¬ 
moft horizontal, and have a few narrow fiiort leaves of a 
lucid green : each ftalk is terminated by a fmal! umbel of 
flowers, of an herbaceous yellow colour, and fmall: they 
are fucceeded by fmall channelled feeds. Native of Au- 
ftria, Provence, Swifterland, and England; on St.Vincent’s 
rocks, near Briftol, and above Uphill in Soinerfetfhire. It 
flowers in May and June. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe are hardy perennials, 
except the fifth, which is a native of the Cape, and the 
feventb, which is an annual plant. They are propagated 
by feeds fown in the autumn rather than fpring. When 
the plants come up, thin them where they are too clofe, 
and keep them clean from weeds: the fecond year they 
will flower and produce ripe feeds. The roots will abide 
feme years in poor land. The laft fort is biennial (others 
make it perennial), and rarely ripens feeds in a garden. 
The feeds of anife fhould be fow n 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 cultivated in England for 
profit. SeePoTERiUM, Sanguis orb a, Seseli, and Sium. 
Gasrtner has united the two firit of thefe under the name 
of Pimpinella. 
PIMTING, adj. [ pimple menjeh, a weak man, Dutch.] 
Little ; petty: as, a pimping thing. Skinner. 
PIM'PLA, or Pimplea, a mountain of Macedonia, on 
the confines of Theffaly, near Olympus, facred to the 
Mufes, who on that account are often called Pimplea: 
and Pimpleades. 
PIM'PLE,/! [pinpel, Sax.] A fmall red puftule.—If 
Rofalinda is unfortunate in her mole, Nigranilla is as un¬ 
happy in a pimple. Addijon's Spelt. 
If e’er thy gnome could fpoil a grace. 
Or raife a pimple on a beauteous face. Pope. 
PIM'PLED, adj. Having red puftules ; full of pim¬ 
ples: as, his face is pimpled. 
PIMPRA'MA, in ancient geography, a town of In¬ 
dia, towards the fource of the river Indus, according to 
Arrian. 
PIM'SAN-IM', a town of Chinefe Tartary: thirty-five 
miles fouth-weftof Ning-yuen. 
PIN, J\ [epingle, anciently efpingle, Fr. from the Lat. 
fpina, a thorn ; or from pinna, pinnula , a frrjall fifli-bone, 
the lpiny ray of a fin, ufed anciently, as well as thorns, 
to faften garments together.] A fhort wire with a fharp 
point and round head, ufed by women to faften their 
clothes.—I’ll make thee eat iron like an oftridge, and 
fwallow my fword like a great pin , ere thou and I part. 
Shakefpeare. 
Whatever fpirit, carelefs of his charge. 
His poll neglefts, or leaves the fair at large, 
Shall feel (harp vengeance foon o’ertake his fins, 
Be ftopt in vials, or transfixt with pins. Pope. 
P I N 
Any thing inconfiderable or of little value.—’Tis foolifh 
to appeal to witnefs for proof, when ’tis not a pin matter 
whether the fadt be true or falfe. L'EJlrange. 
His fetch is to flatter to get what he can ; 
His purpofe once gotten, a pin for thee than. Tujfer. 
Any thing driven to hold parts together ; a peg ; a bolt r 
With pins of adamant, 
And chains, they made all faft. Milton's P. L. 
Any flender thing fixed in another body.—Thefe bullets 
Ihall reft on the pins; and there mult be other pins to 
keep them. Wilkins. 
Bedlam beggars with roaring voices, 
Sticks in their numb’d and mortified bare arms, 
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, fprigs of rofemary. Shakcfp. 
That which locks the wheel to the axle ; as a linch-pin. 
—The central part.—Romeo is dead ; the very pin of his 
heart, cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-lhaft. Shake- 
pcare’s Kom.andjul. — The pegs by w'hich muficians 
tighten or relax their firings.—A note ; a ftrain. In 
low language. —A fir-tree, in a vain fpiteful humour, was 
mightily upon the pin of commending itfelf, and delpiiing 
the bramble. L'Ejtrange. —As the woman was upon the 
peevilh pin, a poor body comes, while the froward fit was 
upon her, to beg. L'EJlrange. —A horny induration of 
the membranes of the eye. Hanmer. Skinner feems like- 
wife to fay the fame. I fnould rather think it an inflam¬ 
mation, which caules a pain like that of a pointed body 
piercing the eye. Todd's Johnfon. —Wilh all eyes blind 
with the pin and web. Shahejpeare. —A cylindrical roller 
made of wood : 
They drew his brown-bread face on pretty gins, 
And made him ftalk upon two rolling pins. Corbet. 
A noxious humour in a hawk’s foot. Ainjworth. 
The form and application of the common pin need no 
defeription; but its confumption, and the number of 
hands it employs, are too confiderable to be pafled by 
unnoticed. 
Pins are now moftly made of brafs-wire: formerly they 
likewife made them of iron-wire, which, being blanched, 
like the others, pafled for brafs; but the ill effect of thofe 
pins has almoft altogether difearded their ufe. The 
French, however, could not be driven off from them 
without feveral arrets of parliament. By a fentence of 
the lieutenant de police, July 1695, the feizure of fome 
millions of thofe pins was confirmed, and the pins con¬ 
demned to be burnt by the common executioner. 
The pins moft efteemed in commerce are thofe of Eng¬ 
land. The method of manufa&uring this ufeful article, 
that has been long praftifed, is as follows. The brafs 
wire, of which thefe impleriients are now almoft wholly 
made, is generally too thick for being cut into pins. It 
is, therefore, reduced in fize, winding it off from one 
wheel to another with great velocity, and caufing it to 
pafs between the two, through a circle in a piece of iron 
of fmaller diameter : the wire, being thus reduced to its 
proper dimenfions, is ftraightened by drawing it between 
iron pins, fixed in a board in a zig-zag manner, but fo as 
to leave a ftraight line between them : afterwards it is cut 
into lengths of three or four yards, and then into fmaller 
ones, every length being fufficient to make fix pins ; each 
end of thefe is ground to a point, which is performed by 
boys who fit each with two fmall grinding-ftones before 
him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a handful, he ap¬ 
plies the ends to the coarfeft of the two ftones, being 
carefui at the fame time to keep each piece moving round 
between his fingers, fo that the points may not become 
flat: he then gives them a fmoother and fharper point, 
by applying them to the other ftone ; and by thefe means 
a lad of twelve or fourteen years of age, is enabled to 
point about 16,000 pins in an hour. When the wire is 
thus pointed, a pin is taken off from each end, and this 
is repeated till it is cut into fix pieces. 
The next operation is that of forming the heads, or, 
as 
