46) 



PSYLLASTOMATINA. 



PTERODACTYLS. 



490 



their nutriment by suction, and in BO doing they often produce 

 excrescences somewhat resembling gall-nuts, particularly on their 

 leaves and buds. They have two joints to the tarsi ; the antennae are 

 composed of ten or eleven joints, the last of which have two bristles ; 

 both sexes have wings, and they possess the faculty of leaping. Their 

 larvae usually have a very flat body, broad head, and the abdomen 

 rounded behind ; the legs are terminated by a little membranous 

 vesicle accompanied beneath with two hooks. Four wide and flat 

 pieces, which are the sheaths of the wings, distinguish the pupa state ; 

 several of the species in this stage, as well as in the larva state, are 

 covered with a white substance resembling cotton. The species are 

 very numerous, and are often named after the plants which they 

 infest. Mr. Stephens records 26 species as natives of this country. 

 PSYLLASTOMATINA. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



PSY'LLIUM, a name of a Plant which occurs in Dioscorides, &e., 

 supposed to be so named from Psyllus (Vv\\oi). 

 PSY'THIRUS. [PSITHYRUS.] 



PTATIMICA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Atteraceee. It has a campanulate involucre with the scales brown and 

 ecarious at the edge. The receptacle ia flat or scarcely convex, broad, 

 and paleaceous. The liguhc from 5 to 20, flat, expanded, much 

 longer than the involucre. The achtcnia are bald, obcompressed, the 

 outer often somewhat winged at the edge. 



P. vulgarii has a widely creeping root, very difficult to extirpate 

 when the soil is moist. Upright stems about two feet high, angular, 

 smooth, hollow, leafy, with small axillary rudiments of branches 

 corymbose at the top. The leaves are sessile, linear, or slightly 

 lanceolate acute, very minutely serrated with bristly teeth ; smooth 

 on both sides, and of a dark green. The flowers are milk-white, larger 

 than most others of the same genus. The whole plant is pungent, and 

 provokes a flow of saliva. Its dried leaves produce sneezing, but this 

 in thought to be owing to their little sharp marginal teeth : the root 

 i aromatic. The heads of P. nana, P. alrata, and P. motchala are 

 used in the Swiss Alps as a substitute for tea. P. mosckata is the basis 

 of the aromatic liqueur called Esprit d'lva. 



(Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom ; Lindley, Flora Medico.) 

 PTARMIGAN. [TETRAOMD.E.] 

 PTERACLIS. [CoRTPH^NA.] 



PTERI'CHTHYS, a singular genus of Fossil Ganoid Fishes, from 

 the Old Red-Sandstone of Scotland and Orkney. (Agassiz.) [Fisn.] 



PTERI'NEA, a fossil genus of Conchifera, allied to Avicula, and 

 hitherto confined to the Palaeozoic, and chiefly found in the Devonian 

 Strata. (Goldfuss.) 



PTERIS (from rrtpoy, a wing), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order. Filicet. The thecse arise from the points of veins placed 

 on a nerve-like receptacle running along the edge of the leaf, forming 

 an uninterrupted marginal sorus; the involucres are continuous with 

 the edge of the leaf, scarious, and opening inwards. 



/'. aifuilina, Common Fern, Bracken, or Brakes, is the most abundant 

 of our British species. It has a long tapering rhizoma, creeping, exter- 

 nally black. The leaves are erect, from one to six feet high, repeatedly 

 compound with horizontally spreading divisions, whose ribs are smooth; 

 the primary leaves are nearly opposite, the lower ones more alternate, 

 pinnatifid segments oblong, obtuse. They are all of a light bright 

 green colour, slightly brown at the edge, which is revolute and crisped, 

 or wavy, sheltering the dense linear masses of tawny thecac. The 

 main stalks are angular and sharp-edged, wounding the hands severely 

 if plucked incautiously. When cut across, the rhizoma has a branched 

 appearance resembling a spread eagle, whence the Latin name. There 

 is scarcely any wood, heath, or forest in the United Kingdom where 

 this plant does not make its appearance. It is said to be indicative of 

 poor soil, but it is more probable that its absence from cultivated 

 ground is to be attributed to the effects of the hoe and the plough, 

 rather than to the quality of the soil. The geographical rauge of this 

 species is very extensive ; it is included ia every European list, and is 

 found also in Asia and Africa. It is used in many parts of England 

 and Scotland for manure, and in the Western Isles the poor people 

 gain considerable profit by collecting the leaves, and selling the ashes 

 to soap and glass makers, on account of the large quantities of alkali 

 contained in them. As a litter for horses, brakes or fern is in great 

 request in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and when chopped up with 

 hay they are sometimes fed upon it In Inverness-shire the poorer 

 classes thatch the tops of their houses with the leaves, and they form 

 a very durable covering. Pigs are fed upon the roots boiled down 

 into a mucilaginous mass. This species is the Filix f&mina of our 

 oliler authors. It is likewise the 0i)AwrTpis of Theophrastus, ' Hist. 

 PI.' 9. 18, and of Dioscorides, 4. 184. The ancients are said to have 

 nsed both the rhizomas and fronda of this fern in decoctions and diet- 

 drinkn, in chronic disorders of all kinds arising from obstruction of the 

 viscera and spleen. .Some modern authors give it a high character 

 for the same purposes, but it is now seldom used by medical practi 

 tioners. In Bailer's time its reputation was very extensive as a 

 tloHtroyer of worms, and a bed of the green fronds wag esteemed a 

 sovereign remedy for rickets in children. The rhizoma is so 

 astringent that in some places it is used for tanning and dressing rec 

 and chamois leather. It has been employed as a substitute for hops 

 and in the Canaries a miserable sort of bread is made by grinding th 

 root with barley. 



(Newman, British Ferns; Babington, Manual of British Botany; 

 jindley, Flora Medica.) 



PTEROCARPUS (from intpov, a wiug, and Kairpos, a fruit, in refer- 

 ence to the pods being girded with a broad wing), a genus of Plants 

 belonging to the natural order Leguminosce. It has a 5-cleft calyx, a 

 corolla with 5 petals, disposed into a papilionaceous form ; 10 mona- 

 delphous or diadelphous stamens, an irregular indehiscent legume, 

 somewhat orbicular, surrounded by a wing, woody, and often rugose, 

 n the middle 1-3-celled. The leaves are unequally pinnated. The 

 racemes axillary, or forming terminal panicle?. The species are 

 unarmed trees or shrubs. 



P. Draco, Dragon's-Blood Pterocarpus, is a tree nearly 30 feet high, 

 with alternate shining leaflets, about 5 on each side, and an odd one, 

 rather obtuse, entire, veined, smooth, pale green below ; the legumes 

 nearly smooth. The wood of this tree is white aud heavy, the bark 

 ;hick and of a rusty gray colour. When first cut it presents no marks 

 of redness, but in a little time red drops of juice begin to collect and 

 exude from the wood. If left in the sun for about ten minutes they 

 Become hard and clear, and are collected under the name of Sanguin 

 Draconis, or Dragon's-Blood. This resin formerly constituted an ex- 

 ;ensive article of commerce from Carthagena, but from its diminished 

 consumption its collection has ceased, and all the dragon's-blood 

 obtained now in the market is the produce of Calamus Draco. 



P. Marsupium is a tree with a very high trunk, scarcely ever found 

 straight. The bark has a brown outer coat which is thin and spongy, 

 and falls off in flakes, disclosing the inner bark, which is fibrous, red, 

 and astringent. The branches are numerous, horizontal, and spreading. 

 The leaves sub-bifarious, alternate, pinnate, with an odd one, 8 or 9 

 inches long. The panicles are terminal and very large, ramifications 

 bifarious. The flowers aro very numerous, white, and with a small 

 spot of yellow in the centre. The bracts small, caducous, solitary 

 below each division and sub-divisiou of the panicle. The seed is 

 solitary and kidney-shaped. This tree is thought by Roxburgh to be the 

 one yielding Gum Kino, a well known astringent, the juice hardening 

 into a dark red and very brittle gum-resin, which, on being powdered, 

 changes to a light brown, not unlike Peruvian bark. Its taste is strong, 

 but simply astringent. The real kino-tree however appears to be the 

 next species. 



P. dalbergioidet is a native of the Andaman Islands, where it grows 

 to an immense size, and forms a valuable timber-tree, of which the 

 wood is known as Andaman red wood, from its resemblance to maho- 

 gany ; but it is redder, heavier, and coarser grained, though that of 

 the root is finer than that of the stem. It was introduced by Col. 

 Kyd into the Calcutta botanic garden in 1794, whence it has been spread 

 into the country. 



P. erinactvu is a tree 40 or 50 feet in height. It has unequally 

 pinnate leaves, smooth above, downy beneath; from 11 to 15 leaflets, 

 alternate, distant, on short stalks, ovate, oblong, obtuse, or emarginate, 

 wiry at the edge ; lanceolate stipules, solitary or clustered racemes, 

 downy from the old wood below, the young branches much shorter 

 than the leaves. The flowers are yellow, the legumes stipulate, com- 

 pressed, membranous, velvety, serrated, and undulated, prickly on the 

 centre. When the branches are wounded, a clear bright gum exudes 

 from them, which is the gum kino of commerce, and is mentioned 

 as such by Mr. Mungo Park. It is a very powerful remedy in obstinate 

 chronic diarrhoeas and dysenteries, and in all diseases arising from laxity 

 of tissue. Externally it is applied as a styptic to check heemorr'aages 

 from wounds and ulcers, and to diminish discharges. 



P. santalinus is a lofty tree having alternate stalked ternate leaves, 

 petiolate alternate leaflets, smooth above, hoary beneath. The racemes 

 are axillary, simple, or branched, and erect. The legume roundish, 

 stalked, falcate upwards, compressed, smooth, keeled on the lower 

 edge, the keel being membranous and undulated. From this tree is 

 obtained the Red Sandal- Wood, a timber chiefly used by dyers (ind 

 colour manufacturers of the present day, but which is also used to 

 colour several officinal preparations, such ns compound tincture of 

 lavender. Its colouring matter forms beautiful coloured precipitates 

 with many metallic solutions. 



P. ftavut is the Yellow Sandal-Tree, and is used for dyeing yellow. 

 Its bark is very bitter. 



(Lindley, Flora Medica ; Burnett, Outline) of Botany.) 



PTERO'CERAS. [STROMBIM.] 



PTE'ROCLES. [TETRAONID.E.] 



PTEROCYANEA. [DUCKS.] 



PTERODACTYLE (Pterodactylus of Cuvier; Ornilhocephalus of 

 Sommering), a genus of fossil Saurians, whose type is entirely extinct. 

 To Collini, the director of the elector-palatine at Mannheim, we are 

 indebted for the first introduction of this Heteroclite. He described 

 the skeleton of the long-billed species from a specimen, found at 

 Aichstiidt near Solenhofen, in that museum, and figured it in the 

 ' Memoirs of the Palatine Academy' (Part. Phys., v. 58, et seq.). 



Collini had well made out the head, the neck, the retrograde direc- 

 tion of the trunk, the small tail, the left leg, and the two arms ; but 

 beyond this he seems to have been at a loss. He came to the con- 

 clusion that the animal was neither a bird nor a bat; inquired 

 whether it might not be some amphibian ; aud finished by express- 

 ing his opinion that the type must be sought among the marine 

 Vertebrata. 



