4*4 



PUERTO PLATA 



PUFFIN 



principal export harbour* for sherry, anil manu- 

 facture* silk, Heap, hats, leather, spirits, IHHM, .\c 

 The Imll ligiits here in May are among the moat 

 famous in the country. Pop. 22, 125. 



Puerto Plata* the chief pit of the liimiini 

 can Kepublic, on the north coast of the ixlaml of 

 Hayti. It has an open roadstead, but exports a 

 good deal of tobacco, mahogany, sugar, coffee, 

 cocoa, divi-divi, &c. The value of imports and 

 exports varies from -230,000 to iHoo.iMi a year. 

 Pop. 6000. 



Puerto Principe, u city of Cuba, 50 miles by 

 rail \V. of NMritM, its |K>rt on tin- north coast. 

 It is tin- centre of u grazing and cattle-raising 

 countrv, mid is the largest inland city of Cuba. 

 Pop. i UM) -J.1,102. 



Puerto Kiro. See PORTO Rico. 



PllfT-adder (Clotho or Echidna arietans), one 

 of the moftt venomous and dangerous vipers of 

 South Africa. It- popular name refers to its habit 

 of pulling itself up when irritated. It attains a 

 length of 4 or almost 5 feet, and is often as thick 

 as a man's arm. I to head is very broad ; its tail 

 suddenly tapered ; its colour brown, chequered 



Puff-adder ( Clotho arittani). 



with dark brown and gray or white. The puff- 

 adder is very sluggish, mid often lies half buried in 

 the Rand of the desert, it* head alone being raised 

 .-il>o\e ground. Its poison is used by the Itiishmen 

 for their arrows. The River-jack (Clullm imximr- 

 nit) U also South African ; the male bears a scaly 



spine l>eleeii the nostrils. 



PllfTball I /.i/i-o/M-i ilon }, a Linnean genus of 

 Fungi, now divided into many genera, In-longing 

 to the section (iasteroniycetes. '1'liey mostly grow 

 on the grouiiil, and arc roundish, generally without 

 a stem, at lir-t linn and Meshy, but afterwards 

 powdery within ; the powder consisting of the 

 spores, among which are many line li lament*, 

 lon-ely lilling the interior of the iirriiliiim, or 

 external membrane. The peiidium finally hursts 

 at the top, to allow the esca|ie of the spores, whieh 

 i-ue from it an very line dust. Some of ihe s|MM-i,-s 

 are common everywhere. Most of them affect 

 rather dry soils, and some are found only in ln-.-itli-. 

 and oandy -nil-. The most common l!riii-li spei-ie- 

 is L. ptinmiitiiin, generally from one to two and a 

 half inches in diameter, with a warty and mealy 

 surface. The largest British sjiecies, the Giant 

 PulDuill ( L. ijiijunlfiiiH ), is often many feet in 

 circumference, and iilleil with a loathsome pulpy 

 ninw when young; but in its mature state its 

 contenti< are no dry and sjHingy that they lia\ e nt'i- -n 



i ii nicd for stanching wounds. Their fumes, 



when burned, have not only the power of Htupefying 

 been, for which they are sometimes used, in order 

 to the removal of the honey, but have been used as 

 thetic instead of chloroform. The same 



properties belong also to other species. Some of 

 them, in a young state, are used in some countries 

 an food, ana none of them U known to be poisonous. 

 Puff-birds (Bucconidtt), a family resembling 

 Kingfishers in form, but living on insects like Fly- 

 catchers ; they also resemble the Bee-eaters, and 

 are found only in South and Central America. See 

 BARIIKT, and Sclater's Monograph of the Jaeamart 

 anil 1'uff-birdt (1882). 



Puflendorf. SAMUEL, BARON VON PUFFEN- 

 l>ORF (or Pufendorf), writer on jurisprudence, 

 was born on 8th January 1632, at Chemnitz, in 

 Saxony. He began the study of theology at Leipzig, 

 but in 1656 went to Jena to study national law 

 and mathematics. Whilst acting as tutor to the 

 sons of the Swedish ambassador at Copenhagen 

 war broke out (1658) between Denmark ami 

 Sweden, and Puffendorf was thrown into prison. 

 During the eight months he was kept there he 

 thought out his Elemtnta Jurinpruaentiic I'm- 

 I;/-MI/,\. It was dedicated to the Elector Pala- 

 tine, who appointed Puffendorf to the professorship 

 of the Law of Nature and Nations at I leidelU-rg. 

 He next exposed the absurdities of the constitution 

 of the Germanic empire in !> Stutu Jieipu/- 

 Germanicce (1667), which raised a storm of con- 

 troversy. In 1670 he was called to (ill the chair 

 of the Law of Nations at Lund, and there wrote 

 the work on which his fame now rests, De Jure 

 Natura et Gentium ( 1672), a work based upon the 

 system of Grotius (q.v. ), but completed and ex- 

 tended in the line of Mobiles' speculations. Some 

 years later the king of Sweden made him his 

 historiographer, with the dignity of a councillor 

 of state. In his official character he published a 

 dry history of Sweden, from the expedition of 

 (iistavus Adolphus into Germany to the death of 

 1,'neen Christine. In 16S8 the Elector of Branden- 

 burg invited him to Berlin to write the history of 

 the life and reign of the Great Elector. He died 

 in that city on 26th October 1694. 



See Lorimcr, Imtituta of Law of Nation* (vol. i. 

 183); H. von Treitschke, in fmuiuelu Jahrb&cher 

 (1875); and Droysen, Aihandlunym tur neuertn 

 GaehicMe (1876). " 



Pllllill (fratercula), a genus of birds of the 

 Auk family, characterised by a gaily-coloured bill 

 red, orange-yellow, and bluish gray with a 

 horny frontal slieath divided by transverse grooves 



Puifin ( Fratercula aretica). 



into several distinct pieces. At the end of the 

 breeding season these furrows deepen, and the 

 sheath is slicd. There is in fact an annual moult 

 of the bill-sheath and of the horny plates alwve 

 and below the eyelids. In form, si/.e. mid colour 

 the new hill-sheath differs markedly from the 

 old one. The genus Fratercula embraces three 



