THE UMBELLIFERS

Qualities and medicinal properties.

The Pignut original: "Bulbocastanum" is of a hot and dry nature; it is moderately astringent, and its root is beneficial for those who spit or urinate blood. See more extensively in Jean Bauhin, Page 30, Volume 3, Part 2.

Small mountain Milk-parsley original: "Selinum pumilum montanum". Of all the fennel-like plants original: "Ferulacearum" provided with smaller and shorter striated grooved seeds, its Umbel the flower head is the smallest; for it hardly exceeds a span about 9 inches in height. Furthermore, it splits itself into many small branches and is provided with short, fennel-like leaves.

Habitat and season.

It grows on dry and gravelly hills around La Rochelle original: "Rupellam", and Bourbon-l’Archambault original: "caput Borbonum", and elsewhere at the edges of fields, and on the bare and grassy mountains of Austria and Pannonia an ancient Roman province covering parts of modern-day Hungary and Austria, according to Clusius. It flowers at the end of May. Toward mid-summer, it produces seeds that are thicker and more swollen than would be expected for the size of the plant; See the General Table of Seed Illustrations, number 2.

Names.

Mountain Carrot with multi-cleft leaves and Milk-parsley seeds, according to Caspar Bauhin. Small mountain Milk-parsley, according to Clusius’s History. Mountain Parsley, according to Tabernaemontanus.

Qualities and medicinal properties.

It is of a hot and dry temperament; therefore, it opens relieves blockages, thins the humors, and induces sweating.

Pannonian Saxifrage, according to Clusius. It has fennel-like leaves, much longer and thinner than the small Milk-parsley mentioned above. It sends out stems a cubit about 18 inches or a cubit and a half high. Perhaps this plant is the same as the English Bur-parsley of Pena; but how poorly it would be called a Caucalis Bur-parsley, since it does not have bristly or prickly seeds, but rather smaller and shorter striated ones. The reader may see this below in our own system of the Umbellifers, arranged through Tables of kinship or affinity.

Habitat and season.

Pannonian Saxifrage grows quite commonly in the royal forest of Fontainebleau, in the place called Bois Bouronne. It is of a hot and dry temperament, like the small mountain Milk-parsley, which is immediately apparent to anyone tasting the seeds of either. Consequently, its seed is no less beneficial for those suffering from bladder stones original: "calculosis" than the other species of Saxifrage.

Names.

Mountain Carrot with many-cleft and long leaves, according to our naming. Erroneously called "with short leaves" by Caspar Bauhin. Pannonian Saxifrage, according to Clusius’s History.

Qualities and medicinal properties.

It is endowed with the same powers as all the umbelliferous Saxifrages, as far as we have been able to gather from the chewing of the seeds, which are gifted with an equal heat and flavor.

Spanish Picktooth or Gingidium original: "Visnaga seu Gingidium". This is a Fennel-like Umbellifer provided with smaller and shorter striated seeds. Its rays, or stalks, which arise from the top of the stem and support small white flowers, form a flat surface; however, the mature seeds form a concave surface, like a small bird's nest, in the manner of a Carrot, or the Syrian Hartwort with larger granulated seeds (which is called Syrian Bur-parsley by authors). This concave surface is common to a few other Umbels. The rays or stalks of the Visnaga, resting upon the upper top of the stem, are the stiffest of all the Umbellifers and are somewhat fragrant: for this reason, the Spanish use them in place of a toothpick original: "dentiscalpii vice" to clean away things that stick to the teeth from food, once the seeds are ripe and the stalks have finally turned hard. Its green leaves, when crushed, have a heavy scent in the manner of hemlock; moreover, both the leaves and roots are bitter.

Habitat and season.

It grows of its own accord among the grain crops of the warm regions of Spain, Narbonnese Gaul, and Provence.

Names.

Gingidium, or Visnaga, is the name commonly used by almost all authors. Another kind of cultivated Cumin, according to Cesalpino.