IN PuKPHAGUa 



2nd Subdivision or Race. 



Fourteen fact ; the x anterior unguiculated ; the fourth or fifth 

 pair bifid ; the sixth and seventh baring the haunches and the thighs 

 very much dilated and united by pain. 



Otereft, Leach, is the only genus placed by M. Desmarest under 

 thi. subdivision. 



3rd SubdirUion or Race. 



Fourteen feet; the six anterior unguiculated ; all the others bifid. 



The gravn arranged under this subdivision are J'andartu, Leach 

 (tWiyiu, Lt.tr. and Lam.), and Ifogmu, Leach. 

 4th Subdivuion or Race. 



Fourteen feet; the six anterior unguiculated; the fifth pair bifid, 

 with the last joints ciliated with hairs. 



Cal<j*4, Muller [CAUOUB], and Ruculta, Leach, arc the genera 

 arranged under this subdivision. 



3rd Division. 



Mouth with its aperture in the middle of five pairs of feet or jaw- 

 feet, terminated in pincers, the haunches of which, rough with points, 

 may serre for mastication ; no antennae ; shell in the form of a buckler, 

 ponrirting of two pieces, and terminated by a long sword-shaped tail ; 

 organs of mpiration placed under the second piece of the shell. 

 Family Limulid<t, Leach. 



The genus Limitim (Limltu, Mull., Fabr., Lat, Leach ; Monocvltu, 

 Linn. ; XipMomra and Xii.hotheca, Qronov. ; Polyphemiu, Lam. ; 

 Cancer, Clos.) is the only one belonging to this division. [Xil'UOSURA; 

 LcaMfJUD*; KirroMOSTBACA ; LIMULUS.] 



POEPHAOUa [BOTXD*.] 



POOXTMAS. [BARBBW.) 



POINCIA'NA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Ltffuminota. P. acuieala, or the Barbadoes Flower-Fence, U a tropical 

 bush, about ten feet high, with bipinnate leaves, oboyate leaflets, 

 prickly branches, large terminal corymbose masses of inflorescence, 

 covered with showy yellow or red flowers, having singularly long 

 sUimrni It has acquired its name from having been used, on account 

 of its prickly branches, as a material for hedges in the West Indies, 

 for which however it is ill adapted, because its branches are not much 

 subdivided, and are always naked next the root. It is among the 

 most beautiful of plants, and is chiefly on that account cultivated in 

 the West Indies, to which it was introduced from the East Indies, 

 where it is common in gardens, flowering and seeding all the year 

 round. The leaves when bruised have a smell of savin, and are said 

 to have the power of bringing on abortion. They are well known to 

 be purgative, and to have been used as a substitute for senna. 

 According to Roxburgh, the trunk of this little trea, or large shrub, 

 when old, is constantly hollow, and occupied by a large red dark- 

 brown ant From this place, when disturbed, the ants issue in 

 warms, and inflict a severe and painful bite on their disturbers. 



POINTER, a variety of the Dog used in shooting, and trained to 

 stop and point where the game lies. This variety is the Chien d'Arrot 

 of the French, and the Canu famtiiarit avicalara of Liunsous. 



The old Spanish Pointer was slow but very sure ; and after all, 

 where game is plentiful, there is as much or more to be picked up 

 before one of these heavy but staunch dogs, now rarely to be found, 

 as with the modern breed, in which swiftness is carried almost as far 

 as it can be. Not that some of these thorough-bred fine-sterned dogs 

 are not as staunch as any pointer of the old school, and there is 

 something very delightful in their dashing style of ranging. A well- 

 bred modern English Pointer, with a strong cross of the fox-hound, 

 has perhaps as much ' travel ' as can well be got out of four canine 

 legs, and on light lands is of great endurance; whilst the true 

 descendant of the perfect Spanish Pointer was rarely good for a second 

 day's work. That the fine-sterned modern pointer is staunch, all who 

 nave seen high-bred and well-broken dogs act will allow ; and it is 

 recorded of Pluto and Juno, the two beauties which are immortalised 

 in Daniel's ' Rural Sports,' that they kept their point while Qilpin took 

 the nketch from which the picture was painted, upwards of an hour 

 and an quarter. Steady enough this ; but on the other hand, though 

 blood will do much, these well-bred fine-sterned dogs have been 

 found when tried on the moon to be, though fast, not stout hunters, 

 and unable to stand work and weather like some of their rougher 

 brethren. 



Those who are interested in the subject of dog-breaking will find 

 it well treated in Daniel's ' Rural SporU,' ' The Sportman's Cabinet,' 

 Colonel Hawker's well-known and excellent work, and more particu- 

 larly in ' Observation* on Dog-Breaking,' by William Floyd, gamekeeper 

 to Sir John Sebright, Bart, every word of which is worthy of the best 

 attention. There are also many valuable hints in the ' Treatise on 

 Shooting.' by the author of the ' Oakleigh Shooting Code,' in ' The 

 Bod and the Gun.' 



I '!. SON FANGS. [OittiDlA.] 



POKE. [PlITTOLAOCA.] 



P'M.AXI'SIA (from oA, many, and (Wot, unequal; stamens 

 numerous and unequal), a genus of Plants belonging to the natural 

 order Capparulatta. It ha* 4 spreading sepals; 4 petals; a small 

 torus ; riliqne sessile within the calyx, or hardly stipitate, terminated 

 by a .lirtinct style. 



P. Moewrfra has a stem covered with viscid glandular hairs, 3-5 



POLISHING SLATE. 



foliolate leaves, the leaflets obovate, cuneate, or oblong pubescent, 

 scarcely longer than the petiole ; the stamens are about 10 in number ; 

 the sillque terete striated, rough with glandular horns, sessile and 

 acuminated. It is a native of the East Indies, and is used in Cochin 

 China as a counter-irritant in the same way as sinapisms in Europe, 

 and as a vesicant. The root is used as a vermifuge in the United 

 States of America. 



P. gravcolent is a plant beset with glandular hain ; it has trifoliate 

 leaves; elliptical oblong leaflets; from 8 to 12 stamens; oblong siliques 

 narrowed at the base, glandularly muricated and pubescent. It in 

 a native of North America, and is employed as a vermifuge. 



POLAR BEAR [BEAR.] 



POLECAT. [MusxELiDJt] 



l'< 'LKMOXIA'CK.E, a natural order of Monopetalous Exogenous 

 Plants, with a trifid stigma, 3-celled fruit, and seeds attached to an 

 axile placenta, the embryo lying in the midst of albumen. They are 

 allied to Conrolvulaccir, from which their calyx, activation, placenta- 

 tion, seeds, and 3-celled fruit distinguish them ; and also to the Echial 

 alliance, from which their plaoeutation, undivided capsular, not nuca- 

 mentaceous fruit, and straight inflorescence, equally disjoin them. 

 They consist for the most part of gay-flowered herbaceous plants, 

 natives chiefly of North America. The genera Cottomia, Phlox, Lepto- 

 tiphon, Giiia, and Polcmonium, are common objects of cultivation, on 

 account of their beauty ; as also is Cubaca, a climbing plant which 

 grows with great rapidity, and is much used during the summer for 

 covering trellis-work and places which require to be decorated with 

 foliage for a few months. None of the order are of either economical 

 or medicinal value. 



POLEMO'NIUM (no\fiu!>i>u)i> of Dioscorides), a genus of Plants, the 

 type of the natural order Polemoniacar. It has a carnpanulate 5-cleft 

 calyx, a rotate corolla, and a short tube with a 5-lobed equal erect 

 limb ; 5 equal stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla, with 

 filaments dilated at the base, bearded in a continuous ring, and nearly 

 closing the throat, and incumbent anthers ; a roundish capsule with 

 membranous crustaceous valves, covered with the permanent calyx 

 and many-seeded cells; the seeds oblong, trigonal, and filled with 

 albumen ; the radicle twice as long as the cotyledons. The species 

 are erect herbaceous plants, with alternate unequally-pinnate leaves ; 

 the flowers terminal, bracteated, arranged on panicled corymbs, with 

 blue or white corollas. About 12 species have been described, most 

 of them being cultivated and known in our gardens as Greek 

 Valerian. 



P. catnUeum, Common Greek Valerian, Jacob's Ladder, or Ladder 

 of Heaven, has a glabrous stem, pinnate leaves, ovate lanceolate acu- 

 minated leaflets, the segments of the calyx ovate or elliptic, lanceolate, 

 pointed ; the panicle downy, glandular. The stem is one or two feet 

 high ; the leaves alternate ; the flowers numerous, bright blue or 

 white, somewhat drooping. It is a native of Europe and America, 

 and is found in Great Britain, but is a rare plant. A great number of 

 varieties have been described. It is a favourite plant in our gardens, 

 and will grow in any common garden soil, and may be readily pro- 

 pagated by dividing the root or by seed. Although deriving its 

 generic name from the Polemonium of Dioscorides, it does not appear 

 to agree at all with his description of that plant, and Fraas refers it 

 to Ifypericttm Otympicnm. Great virtues were attributed to the ancient 

 Poltmonium, and these were transferred to the modern plant ; but 

 neither the ancient nor modern plant possesses any active medical 

 properties. Slight ostringency is the only property possessed by any 

 of the species of Polemoni urn. 



(Fraas, Synoptii Plant. Flora Clanica ; Babington, Manual of 

 British Botany.) 



POLIA'NTHES, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Liliacecc. P. tubenna, or the Tuberose (a corruption of Plaute Tub<5- 

 reuse), is a tuberous-rooted plant, highly prized for the delicious 

 fragrance of its flowers, on which account it is cultivated in the 

 warmer ports of both the Old and New World. Doubts are enter- 

 tained regarding its native country. It appears to have been first 

 seen in Europe by Clusius, who received it from Simon de Tovar as 

 an Indian plant, but whether from the East or the West is unknown. 

 It is extensively cultivated in the East Indies, whence it has been 

 supposed to be an Asiatic plant ; but no traveller has found it wild 

 there, and it has no Sanscrit name. It is therefore more probable 

 that it is of South American origin, for it is equally common there in 

 cultivation ; and, as Sir James Smith has rightly observed, its con- 

 stitution is more like a Peruvian plant than one of Ceylon or Javii. 

 Of late years a wild Tuberose (/'. gracttit) has been found in South 

 Brazil, which is probably the origin of the garden plant. 



The Tuberose is too tender a plant to be cultivated in England in 

 the open air; but in the south of Europe it finds a climate suitable to 

 it, and the Genoese supply the principal part of the European market 

 with tubers for forcing. The Utter are imported into this country by 

 the Italian oilmen, who sell them, with orange-trees, Narcissus roots, 

 and similar products of the south. 



POLISHING SLATE, Polier Schitfcr, a Mineral, occurring massive, 

 with a slaty texture. Its colour is white, yellowish-white, or yellow. 

 Brittle. Opaque. Specific gravity 0'59. It is found near Biliu in 

 Bohemia, at Zwickau in Saxony, and Auvergne, and is supposed to be 

 a volcanic product Its analysis by Bucholn gives 



