Burnet.

Botanical name: 

Plate 07. Pimpinella sanguisorba.

A COMMON wild plant. It grows by way sides, and in dry places, and flowers in July. The leaves which rise immediately from the root are very beautiful; they are of the winged kind, being composed of a great number of smaller, growing on each side a middle rib, with an odd one at the end. They are broad, short, roundish, and elegantly serrated round the edges. The stalks are a foot high, round, striated, purplish or green, and almost naked; the few leaves they have are like those at the bottom. On the tops of these stalks stand the flowers; they are disposed in little round clusters, and are small, and of a pale reddish colour, and have a number of threads in the middle.

Burnet is called a cordial, and a sudorific, and is recommended in fevers. They put it also into cool tankards, like borage. The root is a good astringent; dried and powdered, it stops fluxes, and overflowings of the menses.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.