Parsly Piert.

Botanical name: 

Percicier.

A little wild plant, common among our corn, and in other dry places, with small pale leaves, and hairy drooping stalks. It does not grow to more than three or four inches in length, and seldom stands well upright. The stalks are round and whitish. The leaves stand irregularly: they are narrow at the base, and broad at the end, where they are divided into three rounded parts. The flowers are very small: they grow in clusters at the joints, and are of a greenish colour. The seed is small and round. The root is fibrous.

The whole plant is used; and it is best fresh. An infusion of it is very powerful against the gravel. It operates violently, but safely, by urine, and it opens obstructions of the liver; whence it is good also in the jaundice. There is an opinion in many places, of its having a power of dissolving the stone in the bladder, but this is idle: there is, however, a great deal of good to be done in nephritic cases, by medicines which have not this power.


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