310 



HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS 



PEA 



Its height was nine feet. It weighed this 

 time at the rate of fifty-five tons to the acre, 

 green, and eiglit tons dried. Tlie third crop 

 started as rapidly as the second, but the cool 

 September uiglits lessened its tropical luxuri- 

 ance, so that this crop, which was cut on 

 October 1st, only weighed ten tons green, and 

 one and a half tons dried. The growth was 

 simply enormous, thus : First crop in forty- 

 five days gave thirty tons green, or six and 

 a half tons dry ; second crop in forty-five days, 

 gave fifty-five tons green, or eight tons dry ; 

 third crop in forty-five days, gave ten tons 

 green, or one and a half tons dry ; the aggre- 

 gate weight being ninety-five tons of green 

 fodder in 135 days from the date of sowing, 

 and sixteen tons when dried to hay. This 

 exceeds the Clover meadows of Mid-Lotliian, 

 which, when irrigated by the sewage from the 

 City of Edinburgh, and cut every four Aveeks, 

 gave an aggregate of seventy-five tons of 

 green Clover per acre. There is little doubt 

 that Pearl Millet is equally as nutritious as 

 Corn fodder, which it resembles even more 

 than it does any of the other Millets. We found 

 that all our horses and cattle ate it greedily, 

 whether green or dry. If sowing in drills is 

 not practicable, it may be sown broadcast, 

 using double the quantity of seed, say sixteen 

 quarts per acre. The ground should be 

 smoothed by the harrow, and again lightly 

 harrowed after sowing. If rolled after liar- 

 rowing, all the better. I know of no farm 

 crop that will better repay high manuring, 

 but, so great is its luxui'iance, that it will pro- 

 duce a better crop without manure than any 

 other plant I know of. In those parts of the 

 Southern States where hay cannot be raised, 

 this is a substitute of the easiest culture ; and 

 being of tropical origin, it will luxuriate in 

 their long hot summers. Even though our 

 Northern seasons may be too short to mature 

 the seeds, our experiments in Nev.' Jersey this 

 summer show what abundant crops may be 

 expected if similar conditions are secured. 

 Pearl Millet as a fodder plant presents a new 

 feature in our agriculture, and I feel sure that 

 within ten years we shall wonder how we 

 ever got on without it. As we have had 

 many inquiries as to the best manner of dry- 

 ing Pearl Millet for 'Hay,' we would state 

 that our crop was sown in a solid block, so 

 that when cut it had to be removed from the 

 land where it grew, tied in sheaves, and 

 hung up on an extemporized rail fence. This 

 plan, of course, would not answer when grown 

 on a large scale, as the crop is so enormous 

 that such an expedient for drying would be 

 too expensive both for labor and rails, and as 

 it is too heavj" and succulent to be dried, like 

 Timothy and Clover, on the ground where it 

 is cut, it must be removed, for to attempt to 

 dry it where it grows would destroy the 

 second crop. Circumstances, of course, must 

 in a great measure be the guide, but we would 

 suggest that, when grown for the purpose of 

 being dried, it be sown in beds, say twelve 

 feet wide, with alleys six feet between, where 

 it may be dried; this, of course, would be a 

 loss of one-third of the land for the first crop, 

 but it would be little or no loss of crop in the 

 second, for the Millet would spread so as to 

 fill up all the six feet of alley." 



Pearl-Plant. Lithospermum officinale. 



PED 



Pearls of Spain. Mvscari botryoides, var. 

 album. 



Pearl Weed or Pearl Wort. See Sagina. 



Pearly Everlasting. See Antennaria. 



Pecan Nut (Carya olivmformis). 



The Pecan is cultivated quite extensively 

 now in the Southern States, and it may be 

 found growing on river-banks from Indiana to 

 Texas. Although the tree is well known for 

 its delicious nuts, which constitute an article 

 of considerable commerce, it has not been 

 cultivated sj'stematically for profit until re- 

 cently, except in a few localities in Texas and 

 Mexico. The demand for Pecan-nuts both in 

 this country and in Europe, far exceeds tJie 

 supply, and owners of land in the South, bor- 

 dering on river bottoms, would do well to 

 plant it with the thin or paper shelled variety. 

 In Florida there are many acres of low rich 

 land, aptly called there "fiat woods," which 

 it is almost impossible to drain, and which, as 

 the trees do not seem to mind an overflow of 

 water occasionally, would be just the place for 

 Pecan groves. Land along the bayous and 

 river-bottoms all over the Southern States, 

 being comparatively cheap, owing to destruc- 

 tive overflows of water, the prospect is that 

 much of this waste land will be taken up by 

 Pecan-groves, which will Avell repay the 

 planter in eight or ten years at most. Young 

 groves planted some few years ago in a low 

 flat-wood as an experiment, are now doing 

 finely. As they increase in size and age their 

 growth becomes rapid and their bearing in- 

 creases, the crop nearly doubling itself every 

 year or two. 



Pectinate. Pinnatifid, or pinnately divided into 

 narrow and close divisions, like the teeth of a 

 comb. 



Pe'ctis. From pec<en, a comb; referring to the 

 pappus. Nat. Ord. Componitm. 



A large genus of green-house or half-hardy 

 annual or perennial herbs, natives of the 

 warmer parts of America, from Brazil or 

 Bolivia as far as Mexico. P. angustifolia is a 

 charming annual, well suited for bedding pur- 

 poses. It ranges in height from six to ten 

 inches, and the flowers are of rich golden yel- 

 low, and so freely produced as to form dense 

 cushions. It was introduced to cultivation in 

 1865. 



Pedalia'ceae. A natural order of herbaceous 

 perennial, rarely annual plants, natives of 

 tropical countries, principally Africa. The 

 order is allied to BignoniacecB, but differs in 

 the divisions of the seed pod and the wingless 

 seeds. The seeds of Sesamum indicum and S. 

 orientale yield an abundance of fixed oil of good 

 quality, known as Sesamum or Gingile Oil. 

 The young seed- pods of Marhjnia, the Unicorn 

 plant, are used for pickling. Martynia, Unca- 

 ria and Sesamum, are exauiples of the genera, 

 which number about a dozen. 



Pedate. Eesembling a bird's foot ; a modifica- 

 tion of the palmate leaf, when its lower lobes 

 are again divided and directed downwards, as 

 in Saxifraga pedatijida. 



Pedicel. The stalk of each particular fiower in 

 a cluster. 



Pedicula'ris. From pediculus, a louse ; the sup- 

 posed effect on sheep eating it. Nat. Ord. 

 Scrophulariacew. 



