PETUNIA 



4616 



PHAETHON 



were sunk in the surrounding territory. From 

 Pennsylvania the industry spread to \\Yst Vir- 

 ginia, Ohio and Indiana; the fields in Texas, 

 California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Illinois have 

 been of later development. Since the yield 

 varies from year to year sometimes one field 

 leads in production and sometimes another 

 exceeds it. With extensive development the 

 price has greatly decreased ; it varies now from 

 $3 to $5 per barrel, the quotation depending 

 upon stress of competition and distance from 

 the oil fields. W.F.R. 



Consult Henry's Baku, an Eventful History; 

 Paine and Stroud's Oil Production Methods; 

 Thompson's Petroleum Mining and Oil-Field De- 

 velopment. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 



Benzine 

 Gasoline 

 Kerosene 



Naphtha 



Paraffin 



Vaseline 



PETUNIA, pctu'nia, a flowering herb of 

 the nightshade family which blooms from year 

 to year, and is sure to be found in old-fashioned 

 gardens. It is a native of Brazil, Argentine 

 Republic and Mexico, but florists in America 



PETUNIAS 



have cultivated many hybrids, or mixed va- 

 rieties. The leaves and stems of the plant are 

 covered with long, white hairs, and the blos- 

 soms are pure white or varying shades of pur- 

 ple, violet, rose and pink. Petunias are grown 

 in plots and borders in gardens, in window 

 boxes and in conservatories. They thrive best 

 in rich soil and when they have plenty of sun- 

 shine. The finest varieties are grow from cut- 

 tings, as plants propagated from seeds show a 

 variation from the parent stock. 

 PE'WEE. See PHOEBE. 



PEWTER, pu'tcr. Our great grandmothers 

 used plates, teapots and other utensils made of 

 a grayish white metal that was. easily polished 

 and easily tarnished. The material of which 

 these dishes were made was an alloy (which 

 see) of tin and lead, or tin and lead with the 

 addition of a small quantity of zinc, bismuth, 

 antimony or copper, and was generally known 

 as pewter. It is still used to some extent for 

 beer mugs and a few other utensils, but pottery 

 ware has practically driven pewter from the 

 market. Pewter dishes of olden time, how- 

 ever, are highly prized by collectors. It was 

 of such plates that Longfellow wrote in Evan- 

 geline : 



* * * the pewter plates on the dresser 

 Caught and reflected the flame 

 As shields of armies the sunshine. 



PHAEDRA, jc'dra, in Grecian myth, a 

 daughter of Minos and sister of Ariadne. 

 Though he had abandoned Ariadne, Theseus, 

 in his old age, proposed for the hand of Phaedra 

 and was accepted; but when the young bride 

 came to Athens, she fell in love, not with 

 Theseus, but with his young son, Hippolytus. 

 When he spurned her advances, she accused 

 him to his father of insulting her. The old 

 king prayed to Neptune to punish his ungrate- 

 ful son, and Neptune answered his prayer very 

 promptly, drowning, with his waves, the young 

 prince, who was at that time driving his chariot 

 by the seashore. Phaedra, in a fit of remorse, 

 hanged herself. See ARIADNE; THESEUS. 



PHAETHON, fa'e than, in Greek mythology, 

 the son of Apollo and Clymene. Clymene had 

 refused to tell her son who his father was until 

 the boy, shamed by his companions, made an 

 imperious demand. When he learned that he 

 was actually the child of the sun god, he 

 boasted of it proudly, and was laughed at by 

 his playmates. To prove his claim, he jour- 

 neyed to the palace of the sun and asked of his 

 father a sign of his sonship. Apollo promised 

 to grant any request he might make, but when 

 Phaethon demanded that he be allowed to 

 drive the chariot of the sun for one day, the 

 father tried to retract his promise. Phaethon 

 persisted, however, and after cautioning him to 

 drive slowly and to take care to go neither too 

 high nor too low, Apollo reluctantly watched 

 him depart. The rash boy used the whip on his 

 fiery steeds, which tore up the heavens, drag- 

 ging the chariot after them. They went so 

 high that the earth beneath them almost per- 

 ished with cold; then they rushed- down so 

 close to the earth that vegetation was scorched, 



