HCKEIUNGITR 



PILEOPSIS. 



The four or five white eggs are generally deposited in a hole in the 

 trunk of a cypress tree at a considerable height, at which both the 

 male and the female have laboured, to enlarge and fit it for tho purposes 

 of incubation, till it is some two or more feet in depth. About the 

 middle of June the young are seen abroad. Besides the usual arboreal 

 huents, this woodpecker, it is said, is fond of grapes and other berries; 

 but Indian corn, other grain, or any orchard fruit, it does not touch, 

 according to good authorities. 



P. ( 'Ai/nuu. Sombre with little ban of brown and whitish except 

 on the lower part of the back and rump, where a single colour pre- 

 dominates, forming a huge patch of pure white ; bill black ; a gray 

 hood, pencilled with very bright gray, coven the head; cheeks rusty, 

 and throat whitish ; all the upper part of the body, wings, and even 

 the great quills, rusty brown barred with small whitish bands; shafts 

 of the quilU golden yellow, and their internal part fulvous brown, 

 with a white border or a single spot of the came colour towards tho 

 middle; breast, abdomen, ant) flanks whitish, dotted with brown; 

 colour of each feather yellowish-white, while the middle is occupied 

 by a circle of brown deepest upon the breast. Tail-feathers stiff and 

 wedge-shaped, brown above with a slight fulvous tint brightest below ; 

 the two external and the two internal ones ore pencilled with whitish 

 sinuous bands upon their edges. Colour of the tarsi greenish ; that of 

 the claws approaching reddish. Total length more than eleven inches. 

 (Lesson.) 



It is found in the woods of the province of Concepcion in Chill 

 M. Lesson killed many individuals upon the peninsula of Talcaguano. 



The Chilians call this bird Carpeutero, a name generally applied by 

 the Spaniards to the Woodpeckers, both in Europe and America, 



P1CKEK1XGITE, a name given in America to the Magnesia Alum 

 occurring near Iquique, South America. 



PICIUS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural 1 order Compotltit, 

 and the nib-order Cithoracta. It has an involucre of one row of equal 

 scales, with unequal, linear, often spreading scales at the base; the 

 receptacle is dotted; the fruit terete, transversely striated, constricted, 

 or slightly beaked above ; the pappus in two rows, feathery, external 

 row subpilose. 



P. hieracioidet, the only British species, has rough leaves, with 

 forked and booked bristles, lanceolate leaves, dentate or sinuated, the 

 upper leaves somewhat clasping ; the head solitary, terminating the 

 stem and branches; the outer involucrnl scales lax, oblong, bristly on 

 the keel, glabrous on the margin. The fruit constricted just below 

 the pappus. The flowers are a bright yellow colour. This species is 

 found on dry banks in Great Britain. 



(Babington, Manual of BrilM Botany.) 



PK'liOLlTE, a Mineral which occurs massive, with a thin fibrous 

 radiated structure. Colour leek- or yellowish-green. Fracture 

 splintery. Hardness 3'5 to 4. Opaque, or translucent on the edges. 

 Lustre slight, but somewhat pearly. Before the blow-pipe it colours 

 borax green, the colour disappearing on cooling. This mineral is found 

 at Taberg and Nordmorken in Sweden, traversing beds of magnetic 

 iron-ore. It is stated also to have occurred at Reichenstein in Silesia. 

 The following is its analytic by Klnproth : 



Silica 40'04 



Carbonic Acid 4-70 



Magnesia 3SSO 



Protoxide of Iron S'28 



Water 9'08 



100-90 



PICROSMI NE, a Mineral which occurs crystallised and also massive. 

 Its primary form is a ritfht rhombic prism. Fracture indistinct, uneven. 

 Hardness 2*5 to 3. Nearly opaque. Lustre dull, vitreous. Colour 

 greenish-white, or sometimes dark green or even blackish. Streak 

 white and dull Specific gravity 2-58 to 2-60. Before the blow-pipe 

 it give* out water, but does not melt ; it becomes black, and then white 

 and opaque, and acquires a hardness = 5. 



The massive varieties have a thin and fibrous structure ; fracture 

 uplintcry, granular to compact. 



It is found in the iron-mine of Englesbnrg near Presnitz in Bohemia. 

 According to Magnus it con* ists of 



Silica 54-83 



. . . .. 38-34 



Protoxide of Iron 1-31) 



Protoxide of Manganese 0-42 



Water 7-30 



97-33 



PICTITK. [Ttmmrn.] 



PICi'Msr- [ivinjtj 



pi-i;8. [PiciD*] 



PIO. [Sniix.] 



iron] 



I'l'. uMBiii.r.] 



I'l< is the serf of the plant called by Linnicus Cytitui 



Cajatt, and by Ue Candulle Cajmuu tricolor and Cajnnva flarut. It is a 

 kind of pulse highly eteemed by all cU-w of tho natives of India, 

 and in by them regarded as holding the third rank among such articles 

 of food. 



M KNT. In certain parts of the animal organism we meet with 

 definite and well-marked coloration*, not dejwndcnt on any peculiar 



arrangement of fibres, lie., but on the presence of pigment-granules of 

 various colours. These granules are usually inclosed in cells, termed 

 pigment-cells. In all races of men we find a most remarkable develop- 

 ment of these cells on the inner surface of the choroid coat of the eye, 

 where they form several layers known as the Pigmentum Nigru'in. 

 They are probably always mingled with the epidermic cells, giving rise 

 in the dark races to the deep colour of the skin ; and presenting them- 

 selves in the white races in the form of freckles, the areola round the 

 nipple, &c. The pigment-cells are usually flat and laterally compressed 

 into the polygonal form. The granules in Uieir interior ore extremely 

 minute, retain their dark colour under high magnifying powers, but 

 exhibit various forms. In the choroid membrane of the human eye 

 their form is very regular (fig. 1) ; in the adult no nucleus can be 



Fig. l. 



Cells from the choroid coat of an adult. 



seen, a structure which is obvious in corresponding colls from the 

 foetus (fiy. 2). [EvE.] The pigment-cells have not always a Dimple 



Fig. 2. 



Similar cells from a fcctus at the third month. 



rounded or polygonal form ; they sometimes present remarkable stellate 

 prolongations and other singular shapes, which we have attempted to 

 depict in Jig. 3, representing pigment-cells from a frog : a, b, c, d, e, 



Fig. 3. 



d ff (fig- 3)> are representations of various pigment-colls from its 

 choroid coat, while /is intended to exhibit tho stellar shape in which 

 these cells occur on tho skin of that animal. The nucleus is sufficiently 

 obvious in one of tho cells in a, c, d, e, and g. 



Little is known of the chemistry of tho animal pigments. Scherer 

 has made three analyses of the black pigment from tho eye of the ox, 

 from which he concludes that it consinU of 



Carbon 58-284 



Hydrogen SfllS 



Nitrogen 13-768 



Oxygen 22-030 



-100 



From these analyses it appears probable that the black pigment 

 contains a larger amount of carbon than any other constituent of the 

 animal body. The absence of these cells in tho tissues produce those 

 varieties of animals called Albinos. [ALBINOS.] 



PIGOTITE, a Mineral consisting of an organic acid called muiles- 

 cous acid and ammonia. 



PIKE. [Esox.1 



PIKE, SKA. [CEOTROPOMBS.] 



PILCHARD. [CLUFKID*.] 



I'll.K-WOHT. [RANUNCULUS.] 



PILE'OLUa [NKRmDJE.] 



PILEO'PSIS, Lamarck's name for a genus of Mollutea (Capultu of 

 De Montfort), which name has the priority, whoso place in the system 

 was long doubtful. 



The form was arranged by Linnaeus under his genus Patella, with 

 the name of Patella I'ngarica. 



Lamarck divided his genus Pilcopiit into two sections : the first 

 consisting of those species whoso shell was without any known support 

 PtlfojHu, Lam., Capnltu, Montf.); the second consisting of those 

 species whose shell hod a known support (///;./.o>/ .c, I >i<frnnce). 



