CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

GREAT BURNET SAXIFRAGE

Description. The root of the Great Burnet Saxifrage is thick at the head, spreading into several branches which grow deep in the earth, of a whitish colour, and a hot biting taste, from which spring several pinnated leaves, having three or four of pinnæ, set oppostie, with an odd one at the end: they are somewhat hard in handling, and are larger, narrower, and more deeply cut in than those of the common Burnet. The stalk is about a yard high, stiff, jointed, and full of branches, clothed with narrower leaves, and at their ends grow umbels of small white flowers, followed by very small, dark brown striated seeds.

Place. It grows in gravelly parts of England, particularly in many places of Kent.

Time. The seed is ripe in July.

Government and virtues. It is under the Moon. The roots of Burnet Saxifrage are hot and dry, carminative expelling wind, and are good for the colic, and weakness of the stomach; they are likewise diuretic, and useful aginst the stone and gravel, as also for the scurvy. They possess the same properties of the parsleys, but in provoking urine and easing the pains thereof, are much move effectual. The roots or seed used either in powder or decoction, help the mother, procure the courses, remove tough phlegm, and cure venom, &c. The distilled water thereof, boiled with castoreum, is good for cramps and convulsions, and the seed used in comfits (like carroway seeds) will answer the same purposes. The juice of the herb dropped into grievous wounds of the head, dries up their moistures, and heals them. See the following article.