Blair Collection > Flora Scotica: or, a systematic arrangement, in the Linnaean method, of the native plants of Scotland and the Hebrides > Volume 1

SYNGENESIA : POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA. 49?
The ftalk is eredt, a foot high, branched, and um-
belliferous at the top : the leaves are either quite
fmOoth, or (lightly hairy, very long, and finely
divided ; compounded firfl of 20 or 25 pair of
{\-\ort pinnae, each of which is fubdivlded into
three or even fevcn pair of pinnule, which are
again cut into triSd or quinquefid lanceolate
fegments, all of them dotted and retxulated ;
the fcales of the calyx are green, with pale brown
margins: the flowcTS are fmall and numerous:
the difc is either of a pale yellow colour or red :
the rays are only four or five, very Ihort and
plain, not above half the length. of the calyx,
and either white or red : the feed is oblong,
comprefs'd, and has a white margin.
The pknt has an aftringent quality, and is reckon'd
good to flop all kinds of hoemorrhagies, and to
heal wounds, but is out of ufe in the prefent
pradice. The highlanders fiill continue to make
an ointment of it to heal and dry up wounds.
The conlmon people, in order to cure the head-
ach, do fometimes thruft a leaf of it up their
noftrils, to make their nofe bleed ; an old prac-
tice, which gave rife to one of its Eng/^Jh names.
Linn^us informs us, that the inhabitants of Bale-
karlia^ in Sweden^ mix it with their ale inftead
of hops, and that it gives the liquor an intoxi-
cating quality.
Cattle do not refufe to eat It.
K k POLY