PUNCH 



Pumpernickel. German bread 

 made of coarse, unbolted rye< It is 

 very heavy and of doughy consis- 

 tency, with a hard outer crust, and is 

 somewhat acid in taste. Sometimes 

 a glazing flavoured with caraway 

 seeds is given to this bread, which 

 is largely made in Westphalia. 



Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). 

 Trailing and climbing annual herb 

 of the natural order Cucurbitaceae. 



Pumpkin. Fruit, and stalk with 



male flower, leaf, and tendril ; inset, 



female flower 



Its native country is unknown. As 

 a cultivated plant it was intro- 

 duced to Britain from the Levant 

 about 1570. The bristly, succulent 

 stems bear five-lobed leaves and 

 strong spiral tendrils by means of 

 which it climbs bushes. The large 

 yellow flowers are unisexual, though 

 both male and female grow on the 

 same plant. The females are dis- 

 tinguishable at sight from the pre- 

 sence of the ovary below the calyx. 

 This develops into the enormous 

 fruit or gourd pumpkin, sometimes 

 weighing over 20 Ib. The veget- 

 able marrow and the squash are 

 cultivated varieties of this species. 

 Though not so popular as the 

 marrow, the pumpkin can be cooked 

 in a variety of ways, the best 

 known of which is pumpkin pie. 

 It is easily grown from seeds sown 

 in spring in a gentle heat, and the 

 young plants are set out of doors 

 when there is no danger of night 

 frosts. They suc- 

 ceed in most soils, 

 but do best above 

 a heap of well- 

 covered manure ; 

 they require an 

 abundance of 

 water when fruit- 

 ing. See Gourd; 

 Vegetable Marrow. 

 Pump Room. 

 Room in the build- 

 ings attached to 

 a mineral spring, 

 and in which the 

 waters are drunk 

 by persons under- 

 going a cure. 

 The most famous 



place of the kind in England is the 

 pump room at Bath, which, under 

 the autocratic rule of Richard 

 Nash, was made the capital of the 

 province of pleasure for the fashion- 

 able world from about 1706 until 

 Vs death in 1761. Tunbridge and 

 'Scarborough were rather repaired 

 to for relief, though in the time of 

 Charles II the former was a 

 frequent resort of the court. Aix, 

 Baden, and Homburg are Continen- 

 tal spas with famous pump rooms. 

 See Nash, Richard ; Spa. 



Pun. Play upon the similarity 

 of sound in words of different 

 significance. The word is supposed 

 to derive from the A.S. punian, 

 to pound or bruise, and thence to 

 indicate a pounding of words into a 

 new sense. At its best the pun is 

 rare wit, sharpening and clinching 

 the thought to which it owes its 

 being ; at its worst it is contemp- 

 tible word torturing. 



Apart from the happy conver- 

 sational puns of scores of quick- 

 witted people, the greatest puns are 

 those of Thomas Hood, in whose 

 work the pun achieved an acknow- 

 ledged position as a literary form. 

 Other users of the pun as an aid to 

 wit, more especially conversational 

 wit, were Charles Lamb, Sydney 

 Smith, Douglas Jerrold, and 0. W. 

 Holmes. With the mere word 

 twisting which passed for punning 

 in the burlesques and pantomimes 

 of the latter part of the 19th 

 century the pun fell into dis- 

 credit. See Addison's essay in The 

 Spectator (No. 61) for the history 

 of the pun, and Birch's letter in The 

 Guardian (No. 36) for its apology. 



Puna. High Andean plateaux 

 stretching from Colombia to Chile. 

 Being bounded by the higher rims 

 of the Andean chains they resemble 

 vast troughs. Their great elevation 

 gives them a cold, bleak climate 

 which, together with the little 

 precipitation, restricts the natural 

 vegetation to poor tuft grass and 

 other low plants. On the lower 

 punas, however, the conditions re- 



Pump Room at Bath, from the gallery. In the alcove 

 is a statue of Richard Nash 



semble those of the world's poorer 

 grasslands, and pastoral occupations 

 can be pursued. The name is also 

 given to the cold, dry wind which 

 prevails on these plateaux. See 

 Andes. 



Punakha. Chief town of the 

 independent state of Bhutan, 

 India. It is situated on the edge of 

 the Himalayas on the Sankosh, a 

 small tributary of the Brahma- 

 putra. In 1905 a peaceful mission 

 penetrated to the town, about which 

 little is known. 



Punan, Indigenous tribes of 

 Indonesian stock in Sarawak and 

 central Borneo. Estimated at 

 100,000, round-headed, pale-yellow, 

 muscular, they are inoffensive 

 jungle nomads, wear bark waist- 

 cloths, occupy rude leaf shelters, 

 and subsist on wild sago, fruits, 

 and game hunted with blowgun 

 and poisoned darts. 



Punch. Alcoholic beverage 

 made of spirits and fruit juice, 

 spice, sugar, and hot water. The 

 name and the drink were originally 

 Indian, panch being Hindi for five 

 the five essential ingredients 

 including arrack and tea. Accord- 

 ing to the spirit used, punch is 

 called rum, brandy, or whisky 

 punch. Wine or even ale is some- 

 times added. Milk punch is made 

 of milk and rum, generally bottled, 

 and drunk cold. 



Punch OR THE LONDON CHARI- 

 VARI. British illustrated weekly 

 journal. Devoted to social and 

 political satire, humour, and lite- 

 rary and dramatic criticism, its 

 first issue was published June 17, 

 1841. Ebenezer Landells, Henry 

 Mayhew, Mark Lemon, and Stirling 

 Coyne were chiefly concerned with 

 its production, and for a short time 

 the three last named were joint 

 editors. Then Mark Lemon be- 

 came chief editor, and retained 

 this position until his death in 

 1870. Succeeding editors have 

 been Shirley Brooks, 1870-74 ; 

 Tom Taylor, 1874-80; Sir F. C. 

 Burnand, 1880-1906; and Sir 

 Owen Seaman. Punch became in 

 1842 the property of Bradbury & 

 Evans, a firm known since 1872 as 

 Bradbury, Agnew & Co. The 

 original cover was the work of A. 

 S. Henning ; second by Hablot K. 

 Browne (Phiz), Jan., 1842; third 

 by W. Harvey, July, 1842 ; fourth 

 by Sir John Gilbert, Jan., 1843; 

 fifth by Kenny Meadows ; sixth by 

 Richard Doyle, Jan., 1844 ; and the 

 seventh and present cover, by Rich- 

 ard Doyle, Jan., 1849. The original 

 price of 3d. was maintained until 

 1917, when the extra cost of 

 materials due to the Great War 

 forced it up to 6d. 



Punch has been censored in 

 Russia, Germany, and France; 



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