PODESTA 



POE 



257 



work of hatching is shared by both sexes. A 

 podargns is usually larger than a goatsucker, and 

 lias a wider gape ; the oil-gland seems to be absent, 

 and the rump bears two remarkable tufts of small 

 brittle feathers, known as ' powder-down patches. ' 

 One of the Australian species, P. cuvieri, disturbs 

 the night by a hoarse cry resembling the syllables 

 Mar*-. Pork or Mnpokt, by which names it is there- 

 fore known in New South Wales. 



PiMh'sta (Lat. potestas, 'power'), an Italian 

 municipal magistrate, sometimes with supreme 

 .administrative and military power, sometimes 

 merely judicial. 



I'oiliforit/.H. a fortified town of Montenegro, 

 10 miles E. of Cetinje, was ceded by Turkey in 

 1879. Pop. ( 1895 ) 6534. 



Podiebrad. GEORGE BOCZKO of Podiebrad, 



rloliemian kin;:, wax born of a noble family at 

 Podiebrad on 6th April 1420, and became an ad- 

 herent of the moderate party of the Hussites (q.v.). 

 When the Catholic barons ( 1438 ) carried the elec- 

 tion of Albert V. of Austria (II. of Germany), 

 Podiebrad allied himself with the Utraquists in 

 Tabor, who offered the sovereignty of Bohemia to 

 Casiinir, king of Poland. After forcing Allrert to 

 raise the siege of Tabor and retire to Prague, 

 Podiebrad was recognised as the leader of the 

 Utraquists; then he seized upon Prague (1448), 

 and got himself made governor or regent of 

 Bohemia, from 1453 to 1457, for the youn^ king 

 Ladi.laus. On the death of Ladislaus, Podiebrad 

 was chosen his successor, and was crowned early 

 in 1458. By skilful management and wise policy 

 he succeeded in allaying the bitternesses of religious 

 zeal, but only for a while. In 1462 he decided to 

 uphold the terms of the c<jmpur.tata of Prague 

 ill:!.')): this angered the pope, Pins II., and he 

 was only prevented from excommunicating Podie- 

 brad through the st>ecial intervention of the emperor. 

 The next pope, however, Paul II., did in 1466 

 promulgate against him the ban of excommunica- 

 tion. Matthias Corvinus of Hungary was the only 

 prince who took the field to enforce it ; but him 

 Podiebrad surrounded at Wilamow (1469) and 

 forced into a trace. Nevertheless Matthias was 

 crowned king by the Catholic barons at Olmiitz 

 immediately afterwards. Podiebrad died on 22<t 

 March 1471, having already made arrangements 

 whereby a Polish prince should succeed him. 



Podocariuis. See CONIFER*. 



Podolia. or KAMENETZ, a government of West 

 or ' White ' Russia, north of Bessarabia, and border- 

 ing on the Austrian frontier. Area, 16,224 sq. m.; 

 pop. (ISitl) 2,617,253, the majority of whom are 

 KiLssniaks. The surface is a tableland, strewn 

 with hills ; nearly three-fourths is either arable or 

 available for pasturage. 



Pwdoulltlialma (Gr., 'stalk-eyed'), a name 

 often applied to a section of Crustacea (q.v.). 



|'<M|I|>|I> Hum. a genus of plants comprising 

 two species, variously ranked by botanists in the 

 natural order Kanunculace:e, or made the type of 

 a small distinct order, Podophyllea- or Podophyl- 

 lai-iM 1 , differing from Ranunculacefe chiefly in 

 having a solitary carpel. The genus Podophyllum 

 hag three sepals, six to nine petals, twelve to 

 eighteen stamens, a broad round stigma, seated 

 almost on the top of the germen, and a many- 

 s.....|,.,| berrv. P. peltntum is a perennial plant, 

 common in ^orth America, growing in moist woods 

 and on the shady banks of streams, and is known 

 as Mny-apple, because it flowers and ripens its 

 fruit very early in summer; also as Hog-apple and 

 Wild Lfmon. The fruit may be eaten, but is not 

 "grwal.lf. All the other parts are actively cath- 

 artic. The other species (P. emodi) is a native of 

 3X1 



the Himalayas, and has the same medicinal 

 properties, but in 1889 was shown to yield three 



Leaf, Flower, and Fruit of Podophyllum peltatum. 



times as much of the valuable resin as the Ameri- 

 can plant. 



PODOPHYLLIN is the resin obtained by means of 

 rectified spirit from the root. In the British 

 Pharmacopeia the root is officinal, but is only 

 used to prepare the resin (Podophylli Resina). 

 The latter is an active purgative, and seems to 

 have the power of relieving the liver by exciting 

 copious bilious discharges. The dose is J to 1 

 grain ; its action is slow, generally taking about 

 eight hours. It is aptto gripe, and hence is usually 

 given along with carminatives, or in small dose's 

 combined with other purgatives. 



Pod lira. See SPRING-TAILS. 



Poe, EDGAR ALLAN, a talented American litte- 

 rateur, was Ixjrn at Boston, January 19, 1809. His 

 mother, Elizabeth Arnold, was | r< , prri|th , , 89 i . 1997. .,,,1 

 an English actress ; his father, i" in t>> u.s. by j. K. 

 David Poe, a player of loose I Upp "" > 

 habits, the son of a revolutionary veteran at Balti- 

 more. Orphaned at Richmond in his third year, 

 Edgar was adopted by John Allan, a wealthy and 

 childless merchant, who gave him more care than 

 affection. In 1815 the family went to England, 

 and the boy was sent to school at Stoke Newing- 

 ton, a suburb of London. From their return in 

 1820 till 1825 he attended a classical school at 

 Richmond. The year 1826 was spent at the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia. Offended by his dissipation 

 and gambling debts, his patron removed him to 

 the counting-room, whence he presently absconded 

 to Boston. Here he published Tamerlane and 

 other Poeins, by a Bostonian, 1827, a pamphlet of 

 40 pages (reprinted in London, 1884). Under 

 the new pressure of poverty he enlisted, May 26, 

 1827, as Edgar A. Perry, giving his age as twenty- 

 two. He served, apparently without fault, in the 

 First Artillery at Forts Independence, Moultrie, 

 and Monroe, and rose to be sergeant-major, January 

 1, 1829. He now effected a reconciliation with Mi- 

 Allan, who procured his discharge, April 15, and 

 after a year s delay his admission to West Point. 

 Meantime his second volume, Al Aaraaf Tamer- 

 lane, and Minor Poems, appeared with his name 

 at Baltimore, 1829, 71 pages. He entered the 

 Military Academy, July 1, 1830, recording his age 

 as nineteen. Discipline and constraint did not 

 suit him, and by deliberate neglect of duty he 

 caused his dismissal, March 7, 1831. By this con- 

 duct he lost any remaining hope of favour from 

 his patron, and was thrown finally on his own 

 resources, which were probably confined to cadet 

 subscriptions to his Poenis. The volume appeared 

 as a 'second edition' (it was really a third) in 



