277 



VETROMYZON. 



PHAETON. 



278 



this genus the maxillary ring is altogether membranous, and only 

 furnished with a single tooth on its upper part ; the series of teeth on 

 the tongue are strong, and arranged in two rows on each side, so that 

 the jaws of these fishes appear to be lateral, like those of insects, or 

 the Nereides, a circumstance which induced Linnaeus to place them in 

 the class Vermet. The mouth is circular, and furnished with eight 

 cirri ; in its upper margin is a spiracle which communicates with its 

 interior. The body is cylindrical, and furnished with a fin which 

 surrounds the tail. The skeleton is here reduced to a mere cartila- 

 ginous tube. These singular fishes pour out such an abundance of 

 mucus through the pores of their lateral line, that the water in the 

 vases in which they arc kept seems to be converted into a jelly. 

 They attack and pierce other fishes like the Lampreys. A certain 

 Myxine found in the South Seas (Petrtmyzan cirrhatm of Forster), 

 owing to its possessing seven branchial apertures like the Lampreys, 

 has furnished the type of Dume'ril's sub-genus Heptatremvx. In the 

 sub-genus Gtutrobranchtu (Bloch), the intervals of the branchiae, 

 instead of having separate openings, communicating with a common 

 canal on each side, each of which terminates in a distinct hole situated 

 under the heart. To this section belongs the Myxine, Glutinous 

 Hag, or Borer of English authors, the M Urine ylutinosa of Linmeus, 

 and Gaitrobranchut coma of modern authors. [MYXINE.] 



The next genus of this section (Ammocetei of Dumeril) has the 

 same general form as the Lampreys, and the branchial orifices are the 

 same; but the mouth is semicircular, and the lip only covers tbo 

 upper portion ; hence the fishes have not the power of fixing them- 

 selves, like the true Lampreys. They have no teeth, but the mouth is 

 furnished with a series of fleshy tubercles. 



The fish found in our streams, and known by the names Pride, 

 Sandpride, and Mud-Lamprey (Ammocetct branchialis, Cuvier), affords 

 an example of this genus. This little fish, which is seldom more than 

 six or seven inches in length, and about the thickness of a quill, lives 

 chiefly in the mud at the bottom of fresh-water streams, and is said 

 to be much preyed upon by eels. 



The last division of this family is the genus Amphioxui of Yarrell, 

 and this contains but one species, a most extraordinary little fish, 

 which, it appears was first described by Pallas under the name of 

 Lima.r lanceolatus, but had not been seen since his time till the subject 

 of Mr. Yarrell's description was discovered by Mr. Couch on the shore 

 near Polperro. [BHASCHIOSTOMA.] 



PETROMYZON. [PETROMYZiDi.] 



PETKOPHILA. [MERULIMS.J 



PETROSELI'NUM (ne-rfoai\tmv, which means Rock Parsley, rock 

 being the habitat of the species), a genus of Plants belonging to 

 the natural order Umbcttiftroc. It has an obsolete calyx ; roundish 

 entire incurved petals, scarcely emarginate, contracted into an indexed 

 lobe. The (Use is short and somewhat annulate. The fruit ovate and 

 contracted at the side. The species are smooth-branched herbs. The 

 leaves decompound, with wedge-shaped segments. The involucels 

 many-leaved ; the flowers are white or greenish, uniform ; those of 

 the disc often sterile. The stamens longer than the corolla, 



P. tativuin, Common Parsley, has tripinnate shining leaves; leaflets 

 of the lower leaves ovate cuneate, trifid, and toothed ; of the upper 

 leaves ternate, lanceolate, entire. It grows wild on rocks and old walls, 

 and is extensively cultivated. [PARSLEY, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] 



P. tcgetum, Corn Hone wort, has pinnate lower leaves ; nearly sessile 

 leaflets, ovate and serrated, the upper leaves entire or trifid. The 

 umbels are very irregular, the general involucre having from one to 

 two leaves. The flowers are whitish, the stem erect, roundish, nearly 

 leafless above, from a foot and a half high. It is found on damp fields 

 in a calcareous soil in Great Britain, France, and Switzerland. 

 Goodyer has given an accurate account of this herb, and says that the 

 origin of its name was from the fact of its having cured a swelling in 

 the cheek called a ' hone.' 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany ; Lindley, Flora Medico.) 



PETRO'SILEX. This name has probably been given to two 

 different minerals, namely, compact quart/ and compact felspar ; the 

 latter has also been termed Fusible Petrosilex. [FELSPAS.] 



PETTY CHAPS. [STLVIADJ!.] 



PETUNTZE, the Chinese name for a white earth used with Kaolin 

 in the manufacture of porcelain. It is stated that while the former 

 [KAOLIN] is derived from the decomposition of the felspar of granitic 

 rocks, the latter, or Petuntze, is the same mineral which has not 

 Buffered decomposition, and that on account of its fusibility it is 

 employed iu glazing the porcelain. 



PEUCE, a Fossil Coniferous Tree, of which the species occur in 

 the Oolitic strata. (Witham.) 



PEUCE'DANUM (RfuKtSayov of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, 

 from irtwr?) a pine, on account of the resinous smell of the plant), a 

 genus of Plants belonging to the natural order I'mbeUifene, and the 

 tribe Pucedanea. It has a calyx of five teeth, obovate petals, con- 

 tracted into an indexed segment, emarginate or nearly entire. The 

 fruit has a dilated thin flat margin, the carpels with equidistant 

 ridges, three dorsal filaments, two lateral close to the base of the 

 dilated margin obsolete. The interstice.') have single linear vithe. 

 The species are perennials, generally smooth. The leaves are pinnated, 

 more or less compound. The flowers are white, yellow, or yellowish- 

 green. 



P. ojficinale, Sulphur-Wort, or Hog's-Fennel, is a smooth herb 

 three or four feet high, with a resinous juice and a strong sulphureous 

 smell. The leaves are four or even five times ternate, with linear- 

 lanceolate acuminate flaccid segments. The involucre 3-leaved and 

 deciduous; the pedicels much shorter than the fruit. The fruit of 

 a pale-brown colour, the vittse of a deep chocolate ; the primary ridges 

 much depressed and paler. The commissure a light fawn-colour with 

 two crimson vittse very evident upon it. It is a native iu marshy and 

 shady places throughout Europe and in Great Britain. The juice of 

 the root of this plant is resinous and has a peculiarly strong smell. 

 Many stimulating qualities have been attributed to it, and it is reputed 

 anti-spasmodic and diuretic, but it seems to be rather a dangerous 

 internal remedy. 



P. oreosetinum has a taper striated stem. Triternate leaves with the 

 petioles broken back, the leaflets remote, ovate, deeply pinnatifid and 

 shining. The fruit is roundish oval. The flowers white with a tinge 

 of blue. The leaves and stem are bitter and aromatic, as is the fruit 

 in a higher degree. They were formerly used as stimulants, and are 

 still esteemed in some countries. 



P. motitanum is a native of the north and middle of Europe, and 

 has a tapering simple root with many long fibres. The stem is erect, 

 from four to five feet high, hollow, deeply furrowed, smooth branched, 

 and corymbose at the top, and of a bright purple colour at the base. 

 There are about five or six leaves on a stem, which are alternate, 

 remote, and with bipiuuate divisions ; the leaflets are opposite, deeply 

 pinnatifid, dark green, and smooth; the petioles striated, smooth, 

 with a reddish membranous margin. The flowers are white and 

 numerous ; the fruit a very light straw-colour, shining and obovate. 

 The root is said to supply the place of ginger in Russia. The whole 

 plant abounds in a white bitter foetid j uice which eoon hardens into a 

 brown acrid resin. It u famous in Corn-land as a remedy for epilepsy. 

 P. paliatre has 3-pinnate leaves pinnatifid with linear-lanceolate 

 acuminate segments, the general involucre of many persistent lanceolate 

 deflcxed leaves. The stem is furrowed, and from three to five feet 

 high. The flowers are white. It is found in Great Britain, but rarely. 

 Any common garden soil will suit the species of Peucedanum, and 

 they are easily raised from seed. 



(Don, Dichlamydeout Plants ; Babington, Manual of British Botany ; 

 Lindley, Flora Medico,; Burnett, Outlines of Botany ; Lindley, Vege- 

 table Kingdom.) 



PEZI'ZA. [HYMENOMYCETES.] 

 PEZO'PORUS. [PBITTACIM:.] 

 PHACOCH(EROS. [SuiD*:.] 

 PHACOLITE. [CHABASITE.] 

 PHACOPS. [TRILOBITES.] 

 PH^ENICORNia [LANIADJ!.] 



PH^ENO'QAMOUS or PHANERO'GAMOUS PLANTS are those 

 which have visible flowers and seeds. The words are used indifferently 

 in contradistinction to Cryptogamous, which includes those plants 

 which either have no sexes or none which are distinctly visible. 



PHAETON, Liunreus, a genus of Palmipede Birds, placed by some 

 ornithologists among thePelecanida;, and by others among ths Laridce. 



This genus, so well known to navigators as the harbinger of the 

 tropics, is distinguished at once by the two long slender tail-featherr , 

 which have obtained for the species, of which two only are recorded, 

 the French name of Paille-en-Queue. Their length of wing and com- 

 paratively feeble feet proclaim them formed for Sight, and they are 

 accordingly swift and untired on the wing, disporting in the air far 

 at sea ; and when on land (to which they do not often retreat for any 

 length of time together, except at the period of nidiScation), perch- 

 ing on rocks and trees. They rarely quit the torrid zone and its 

 neighbourhood. 



M. Lesson remarks that the two species form a well-defined artificial 

 and purely geographic^ group. Their habitual domicile in the torrid 

 zone does not separate them from the laud ; and they can reach, as 

 they do nearly every night, the isles and lofty rocks that serve them 

 as a place of refuge. Nevertheless M. Lesson met with them so often 

 in sea-tracts entirely devoid of land, and heard them so often above 

 his head in the calms and fine tropical nights, that he thinks they 

 should be considered as oceanic birds. 



The same author remarks that sudden squalls or hurricanes, so 

 frequent in the equatorial zone, often sweep these birds beyond their 

 natural limits ; and he thus accounts for seeing them, as he many times 

 did, in 30" S. lat. 



The Common Tropic Bird (Phaeton (ethereus), he says, " semble ctre 

 confine 1 dans 1' ocean Atlantique, et s'arroter dans les mers de 1'Inde." 

 The other species (Phaeton phomicurw), he remarks, appears to belong 

 more particularly to the great equinoctial ocean. Nevertheless, he 

 adds, that both species exist in nearly equal numbers at the islands of 

 Mauritius and Bourbon. He describes the flight of these birds as 

 calm, quiet, and composed of frequent strokes of the wing, some- 

 imes interrupted by a sort of falls or sudden movements. 



Mr. G. R. Gray makes the Phaftonina, consisting of the genus 

 Phaeton only, the second sub-family of his PeUcanida;, placing it 

 oetween the Plotinte and the Pelecanina;. (' List of the Genera of 

 Birds,' 1841.) 



Phaeton, Linnaeus (Lepturut, Mtchr; Tropicoliphus, Leach). The 

 jill is strong, stout, hard, trenchant, compressed, convex above, 



