The Description.

            1. This great kind of Pimpernel, or rather Saxifrage, hath great and long roots, fashioned like a Parsnip, of an hot and biting taste like Ginger: from which riseth up an hollow stalk with joints and knees two cubits high, beset with large leaves, which do more nearly represent Smallage than Pimpernel, or rather the garden Parsnip. This plant consisteth of many small leaves growing upon one stem, snipped or dented about the edges like a saw: the flowers do grow at the top of the stalks in white round tufts: the seed is like the common Parsley, saving that it is hotter and biting upon the tongue.

            There is a bigger and lesser of this kind, which differ little, but that the stalks and veins of the leaves of the lesser are of a purplish colour, and the root is hotter.

            2. Bipinella is likewise a kind of Burnet or Pimpernel, upon which Pena hath bestowed this addition Saxifraga minor: under which name Saxifraga are comprehended divers herbs of divers kinds, and the one very unlike to the other: but that kind of Saxifrage which is called Hircina, which is rough or hairy Saxifrage, of others Bipinella, is best known. and the best of all the rest, like unto the small Burnet, or common Parsley, saving that it is void of hairs, as may appear by the old Latin verse,

Pimpinella habet pilos, Saxifraga non habet ullos.
Pimpernel hath hairs some, but Saxifrage hath none.

Notwithstanding, I have found a kind hereof growing in our pastures adjoining to London, the leaves whereof if you take and tenderly break with your hands, you may draw forth small threads, like the web of a spider, such as you may draw from the leaves of Scabious. The stalk is hollow, dividing itself from the joints or knees, into sundry other small branches; at the top whereof do grow small tufts or spoky roundels, of a white colour: after which cometh the seed like to Caruia, or Caraways, of a sharp taste: the root is also sharp and hot in taste.

The Place.

            These plants do grow in dry pastures and meadows in this country very plentifully.

The Time.

            They flower from June to the end of August.

The Names

            That which Fuchsius calleth Pimpinella maior, Dodonaus termeth Saxifraga maior, which kind of Saxifrage doth more absolutely answer the true Phellandrium of Pliny, than any other plant whatsoever: wherein the physicians of Paris have been deceived, calling or supposing the Meadow Rue to be the right Phellandrium, whereunto it is not like either in shape or faculty; for it is nothing so effectual in breaking the stone, or provoking of urine, as either of there plants, especially Pimpinella hircina, which is not so called, because it hath any rammish small of a goat, but because practioners have used to feed goats with, whose flesh and blood is singular good against the stone, but we rather take it to be named Hircina, of Hircinia sylva[A forest, now mostly felled, which extended eastwards from the Rhine across southern Germany], where it doth grow in great abundance, the savour of the herb not being unpleasant, somewhat resembling the smell and taste of Daucus, Ligustrum and Pastinaca: so to conclude, both these are called Saxifragia: the smaller is called of some Petræfindula, Bipinella, and Bipenula: of Baptista Sardus, and also of Leonardus Fuchsius, Pimpinella maior: wherefore divers call it Pimpinella saxifraga: for there is also another Pimpinella called Pimpinella sanguisorba: notwithstanding the verse before rehearsed showeth a difference between Pimpinella and Saxifraga: in High Dutch, it is called Bibernel: in Low Dutch, Bauenaert: in English the greater may be called Great Saxifrage, and the other Small Saxifrage.

            Bipinella is called Saxifragia minor: in English, Small Saxifrage, as Pimpinella is called Great Saxifrage. Columna judges it to be the Tragium of Dioscorides.

The Nature.

            Saxifrage of both kinds, with their seed, leaves, and roots, are hot and dry in the third degree, and of thin and subtle parts.

The Virtues.

            A. The seed and root of Saxifrage drunken with wine, or the decoction thereof made with wine, causeth to piss well, breaketh the stone in the kidneys and bladder, and is singular against the strangury, and the stoppings of the kidneys and bladder: whereof it took the name Saxifragia, or break stone.

            B. The juice of the leaves of Saxifrage doth cleanse and take away all spots and freckles of the face, and leaveth a good colour.

            C. The distilled water thereof mingled with some vinegar in the distillation, cleareth the sight, and taketh away all obscurity and darkness of the same.