PAR1ETARIA. 



PARRA. 



210 



plaint. This is nearly all the qu:iiut song ever attempted by the 

 Chicadee ; and is perhaps the two notes sounding like the whetting 

 of a saw, remarked of this bird in England by Mr. White, in his 

 'Natural History of Selborne" (vol. i.) On fine days about the 

 commencement of October, I have heard the Chicadee sometimes for 

 half an hour at a time, attempt a lively petulant warble, very dif- 

 ferent from his ordinary notes. On these occasions he appears to 

 flirt about, still hunting for his prey, but almost in an ecstacy of 

 delight and vigour. But after a while the usual drawling note again 

 occurs. These birds, like many others, are very subject to the attacks 

 of vermin, and they accumulate in great numbers around that part 

 of the head and front which is least accessible to their feet. 



" The European bird is supposed to be partial to marshy places. 

 Ours has no such predilection, nor does the American bird, that I can 

 learn, even lay up or hide any store of seeds for provision a habit 

 reported of the foreign family." 



Prince Bonaparte notes Parue palualrii and P. atricapillus as distinct 

 species, in his ' Birds of Europe and North America.' 



P. niger, VieilL (P. leucopterus, White- Winged Tit, Sw.), has a deep 

 uniform glossy black with slight bluish reflection in certain lights, 

 except the wings, on which the black is relieved by the snowy white 

 of the lesser and greater coverts and of the quills. Total length 

 nearly six inches. It is abundant in the Kaffir country, South Africa. 



Le Vaillant describes the note of this species, his Melange Noire, as 

 the came with that of P. majot: The nest, he says, is made in the 

 trunks of trees, where the bird also roosts. The pure white eggs, he 

 add., are from six to eight in number. 



White-Winged T;t (Parui niger}. Le Vaillant. 



PARIETATUA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Urlicacett. It has polygamous flowers, surrounded by an involucre, a 

 bell shaped 4-parted perigone, 4 stamens, and a filiform style. 



P. officinali, Wall-Pellitory, has ovate or oblong-ovate leaves, with- 

 out lateral ribs at the base, two axillary bifid cymes, the segments of 

 the involucre ovate-obtuse. The leaves are alternate, the flowers 

 small and reddish, the fruit black and shining. It ia a British plant, 

 and is found on old walla and rubbish. It is the P. erecta of Koch 

 and Reichenbach. 



(Babington, Manual of Britith Botany.') 



PARIS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Atparagea. 

 It hag a patent horizontal perianth, 8-parted to the base, the four 

 inm-r parts, or corolla, narrower than the others. There are 8 

 stiirneDH, tb anthers fixed to the middle of a subulate filament. The 

 styles are 4 in number, the berry 4 celled, the cells with from 4 to 8 

 * K 



/'. '/uadnfolia, Herb-Paris, the only British species, hns usually four 

 leaves in a whorl, a stem about n foot high springing from the extremity 

 of a long rhizoma usually with four, occasionally from three to six 

 lftve at iU summit. The flowers are solitary and terminal, the sepala 



HAT. Blur. DIT. Tor,, iv. 



lanceolate, the petals subulate. It has no root-leave?, and is found 

 in damp woods in England. It is considered to be a narcotico-acrid 

 poison. 



P. polypkylla, a native of Xepaul, possesses similar properties. 



(Babingtou, Manual of British Botany.} 



PARISITE, a Mineral [YTTBOCERITB.] 



PA'RKIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Legumi. 

 nosce and the tribe Mimosece. It was named by Mr. Brown in honour 

 of the great African traveller llungo Park. The genus contains only 

 a few unarmed trees, which are found on the west coast of Africa, the 

 peninsula of India, Silhet, and in the islands to the eastward of the 

 Bay of Bengal. Parlcia is distinguished among the Mimosa-like 

 Leguminosce by the tubular 5-cleft calyx and the corolla with 5 distinct 

 petals having a more or less imbricate festivation ; stamens 1 0, 

 hypogynous, monadelphous. Legume many-seeded, 2-valved, with a 

 farinaceous pulp around and between the seeds. Inflorescence an 

 axillary peduncled and club-shaped spike. 



P. Africana is the Nitta, or Doura-Tree of Soudan. The farinaceous 

 matter surrounding the seeds is eaten, and also made into a pleasant 

 drink when steeped in water. The seeds are roasted as coffee is with 

 us, then bruised and allowed to ferment in water. When they begin 

 to become putrid, they are well washed and pounded, and the powder 

 is made into cakes resembling chocolate, which form an excellent 

 sauce for all kinds of meat. (Brown, in Deuham.) A species of this 

 genus, the Mimosa peduncnlata of Roxburgh, is said by him to be 

 similarly valued by the Malays, that is, they eat the mealy matter 

 which surrounds the seeds, ns well as the seeds themselves, which are 

 said to taste like garlic. 



PARKINSO'NIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Leguminotce. P. aculeata, the Barbadoes Flower-Fence, ia a well 

 known West Indian shrub, very generally employed in such climates 

 as an ornamental plant, and especially for the construction of hedges, 

 for which its strong spines render it well adapted. It has long 

 pinnated leaves, with a winged petiole, and grows as much as 12 or 15 

 feet high. The flowers are large, yellow, very numerous, and a little 

 variegated with red spots, and are succeeded by long narrow knotted 

 pods. When in flower it is gaid to be one of the most splendid objects 

 in the vegetable kingdom. 



PARMACELLA. [Lnux.] 



PARMEUA. [LICHENS.] 



PARMOPHORUS. [Ki.ssLUEU.in.K.] 



PARNASSIA (from the name of Mount Parnassus), a genus of 

 Plants belonging to the natural order Droseracece. It has a 5-cleft 

 deeply-cut calyx, 5 petals, and 5 stamens, with 5 scales fringed with 

 glandular seta) interposed. The stigmas are sessile and 4 in number, 

 the capsules 1-celled with 4 valves. The species are smooth herbs. 

 The leaves ovate, cordate, cauline ones usually clasping the stem or 

 sessile. The flowers are all white striped with green ; the tuft of the 

 glands yellow. 



P. paluslris, Marsh or Common Grass of Parnassus, has cordate 

 stalked radical leaves, the stem-leaves amplexicaul, the filaments of 

 the petaloid scales from 9 to 13; the petal has a short claw, and is 

 white and veined ; the glands of the scales yellow. It is native 

 throughout Europe, in marshy and damp places, and in Britain iu 

 mountainous countries. 



P. fimbriata is a very elegant species ; the leaves are remarkably 

 hollowed out at the base close to the lateral ribs, which are connected 

 with one another by a common base like the divisions of a pedato 

 leaf. It has palmate glandless appendages, obovate petals fringed at 

 the base. It is a native of the western coast of North America. 



(Don, Dichlamydeoui Plants ; Babington, Manual.) 



PARONYCHIACE^E, Meisner's name for the family of Plants 

 called by Lindley Knotmrts. Brown named this tribe after 

 Ittecebrum, Illecei/rece, which is now most commonly adopted. [!LLE- 



C'EBBACEA).] 



PAROTIA. [BIRDS OF PARADISE.] 



PAROTID GLAND (from irapi, ' near,' and oh, ' the ear ') is the 

 largest of the three principal glands by which the saliva is secreted 

 and poured into the mouth. The parotid glands are situated, one on 

 each side of the face, behind the ascending part of the lower jaw, and 

 below and in front of the ear. The most anterior portion of each lies 

 upon a part of the masseter muscle, immediately beneath the skin of 

 the face, at the most backward part of the cheek ; and hence the main 

 duct passes forwards, penetrating obliquely through the fat of the 

 cheek and through the buccinator muscle, to open into the cavity of 

 the mouth nearly opposite to the second molar tooth of the upper 

 jaw. The more posterior part of the gland is placed in an intricate 

 manner among the tissues behind the jaw and beneath the outer part 

 of the base of the skull, fitting into the irregularities that are left 

 between them, and in some parts passing very deeply down beneath 

 the skin. 



The structure of the parotid, like that of all the glands secreting 

 saliva, is lobular, being made up of a number of minute cells, the 

 terminations of the branches of the main duct, upon whose walls a 

 net-work of capillary bloodvessels is arranged, and which are collected 

 together in uncertain numbers to form the several lobules of which 

 the whole gland is made up. [DIGESTION; GI.AND.] 



PARKA. 



