4>7 



PTEROPTOCHUS. 



PULEX. 



493 



locomotive organs ; respiratory orgau contained within a mantle 

 cavity. 



This section embraces two families, ffyalceidce and Limannidce. 

 B. Gymnoiomata. Animal naked, without mantle or shell ; head 

 distinct; fins attached to the sides of the neck; gills indis- 

 tinct. 



It contains but one family, the Cliidie. [CLIOU1D/E.] 



PTERO'PTOCHUS. [MEBULID.E.] 



PTE'ROPUS. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



PTEROSPERMUM (from the Greek word irrfptv, signifying a wing, 

 and ffTrcpfio, a seed), a small genus of Plants belonging to the natural 

 order Byltjitriacect, which is found in the Indian Isles and the 

 southern parts of India. The flowers being large aud the foliage 

 showy, have induced the cultivation of the species as ornamental 

 trees all over India. The calyx is leathery, 5-partite, tomentose 

 outside, hairy within; petals 5, shorter than the calyx; stamens 20 

 (5 sterile), united at the base into a column with the stalk of the 

 ovary ; style slender, club-shaped ; seeds winged. The genus is 

 small, but all the species form handsome trees, and, like most of the 

 plants of the nearly allied order of Jfalvacere, abound in mucilage 



PTEROTRA'CHEA. [GASTEROPODA.] 



PTERU'THIUS. [LEIOTRTCHAN.E.J 



PTI'LINOPUS. [COLCMBID&l 



PTILODI'CTYA. [POLYPIFERA.] 

 PTILO'GONYS. [LAJTIAD.*:.] 

 PTILOLEPTUS. [CUCOLID*.] 

 PTILONORHY'NCHUS. [STUH.NID.E.] 



PTILOPACHUS. [TETRAONID^.1 



PTILO'PHYltUS. [CoLtJMBiDJ!.] 



PTILORHYNCHUS. [CoRViD^.] 



PTI'LORIS, Mr. Swainson's name for a genus of Birds which he 

 arranges under the Paradiriadce, or Birds of Paradise. 



PTILO'STOMUS, Mr. Svvainson'a name for a genus of Birds which 

 he places under the sub-family Qlaucojiince (Wattle-Crows) of the 

 family Conidcc. P. Senegalentit (Sw.), the Senegal Piapec, is a native 

 of Africa. 



PTILO'TIS. [MELIPHAOID*.] 



PTILOTU'RUS. [MELIPHAGID.E.] 



PTYCACA'NTHUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes. [FiSH.l 



PTYCHO'CERAS. [CEPHALOPODA.] 



PTY'CHODUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes. [Fi8H.] 



PTY'CHOGENS are Endogenous Plants whose leaves are occupied 

 by veins running side by side from the base to the apex, without 

 irregular division, as in grasses, lilies, &c. The name has been given 

 in contradistinction to Dictyogens, which are those Endogens that, 

 like fhnilnj; have the reticulated veins of Exogens. [SMILACE.E.] 



PTYCHO'LEPIS, a genus of Fossil Fishes. [Fisn] 



PTYCHOPLEURES, the name used by Messrs. Dume"ril and Bibron 

 to designate a sub-family of the Chalcidians or Cyclosaurs, the seventh 

 family of Saurians according to their arrangement. [SiDRiA.] 



PTYCHO'TIS, a small genus of Umbelliferous Plants, of which the 

 seeds of some of the species have formed articles of condiment and of 

 medicine from very early times. The genus extends from the south 

 of Europe, through the Oriental region, to all parts of India. The 

 calyx is 5-toothed ; petals obovate, bifid, or emarginate, with a long 

 indexed point. Fruit compressed laterally, ovate or oblong. Seed 

 roundish, or fiat before and convex posteriorly. The species are 

 annual or biennial plants. Stem-leaves usually cut into numerous 

 capillary segments. Flowers white, disposed in compound umbels, of 

 which the involucels are many-leaved, and the involucre either wanting 

 or few-leaved. 



The European species are not remarkable for any useful properties, 

 but P. coptica and P. Ajowan probably yielded the seeds which formed 

 the ' Ammi* of the ancients. Botanists and inquirers into the plants, 

 condiments, and medicines of the ancients, have usually sought too 

 exclusively in Europe for what was frequently derived from the East. 

 Dioscorides states that the yEthiopic Ammi is called Cumin by some, 

 and that it is thought t<> be distinct from the royal kind. The seeds 

 of one kind were sent by Forskiil to Linnaeus, who named the plant 

 Ammicopticum. This has now been removed to the present genus 

 Ptychotii. Arabian authors give Nankhwah as the synonym of Ammi, 

 and Persian authors consider Ajwain to be a synonym of the former. 

 It is remarkable, according to Dr. Royle, that there is also an Indian 

 plant which is everywhere called Ajwain, and celebrated for its 

 aromatic smell, pungent taste, and for its employment both by natives 

 mid Europeans for culinary and medicinal purposes ; so much so, that 

 Dr. Roxburgh could not conceive that " this famous Indian plant 

 should be unknown to European botanists." Dr. Royle says, "in 

 Persian works in use in India the Arabic Nankhwah is given as a 

 synonym of the Indian Ajwain, as it is also of the Greek Ammi." 



The Indian species has been referred by De Candolle to the genus 

 Ptyehotit, and called by him P. Aj//u>an, stating that it was very closely 

 allied to P. coptica, which we have seen was considered to be one kind 

 of Ammi the two kinds described by Dioscorides being Ouminum 

 J&'hiopimm and C. regium. The latter name is translated by the 

 Persians 'KamoonMullooke,' or Royal Cumin, and given as a synonym 

 of the Nankhwah. The Indian and Egyptian kinds of Ptychotii, fa 



HAT. HIST. Drv. voi,. iv. 



ascertained by modern botanists, are therefore most probably the two 

 kinds of Ammi of Dioscorides. These afford interesting instances of 

 the results to be obtained by closely examining the products of nature 

 possessed of any remarkable properties, in the countries where they 

 are produced, and continue to be used, and whence they were probably 

 first obtained by the ancients. 



PTYCHOZO'ON. [GECKOTID.B.] 



PTYODA'CTYLUS. [GECKOTID.E.] 



PUCCI'NIA, a genus of Fungi, well known to farmers under the 

 name of Mildew. It is distinguished from other parasitical genera by 

 its spore-cases being elevated upon long slender stalks and divided 

 internally by one or two horisontal partitions into two or three 

 separate cavities ; the spore-cases arise from a spawn or matrix which 

 is dispersed among the living tissue of the plant on which they grow. 

 A considerable number of species have been distinguished by writers 

 on Fungi, aud 38 are enumerated as inhabitants of this country. 

 They all grow upon the living leaves or stems of plants, and are 

 generated in their interior, bursting through the epidermis when 

 ready to scatter their seeds or spores. By what meaus the latter are 

 introduced into the tissue has never been satisfactorily explained. 

 Some writers imagine the seeds to be introduced through the stomates 

 from the atmosphere where they float ; but it seems more probable 

 that they are absorbed by the young roots, and carried upwards in 

 the current of vegetation, a mode of introduction which their 

 extremely small size renders quite possible. The mildew of corn is 

 the P. graminif, which makes its appearance on the straw and leaves 

 in the form of dark gray or black lines and patches, broken in outline 

 in consequence of their running irregularly together. Each line 

 consists of numerous minute spore-cases, which are individually black 

 when quite ripe. The plant appears in all corn-fields in all seasons, but 

 its injurious effects are only observed in wet seasons, or in places where, 

 from whatever cause, the straw becomes very rank ; in the latter 

 instance, the spore-cases, from their great abundance, attract from 

 the straw the fluid food which was intended for the support of the 

 grain, intercepting it in its passage upwards, and thus cause the ruin 

 of the crop. In a disease of this kiud there seems no hope of dis- 

 covering a remedy, for the earth is undoubtedly well stored with 

 the spores of Puccinia in all places and in all seasons. [FuNOI ; 

 ENTOPHYTA.] 



PUCCOON. This name is given in the United States of America 

 to a red vegetable pigment employed by the Indians, and heuce has 

 been transferred to the plant that produces it. By some it has been 

 ascribed to Sanguitorba Canadenais ; but Pursh asserts that it is 

 obtained from the root of Hatschia canescens, a Boraginaceous plant, 

 while the American writers with one accord apply the name to Bangui- 

 naria Canadentit, a Papaveraceous plant, whose roots yield, when 

 wounded, a deep orange-red fluid. 



PUCHURY. [NECTANDRA.] 



PUDDING-STONE. [CONGLOMERATE.] 



PUFF-BALL. [LYCOPERDOX.] 



PUFF-BIRDS. [BAKBETS.] 



PUFFIN. [AUK; PROCELLARID.E.] 



PUFFINUS, a genus of Birds belonging to the family Laridie. 

 [LARID.E.] It has the following generic characters : Bill as long or 

 longer than the head, slender ; upper mandible compressed, and curved 

 towards the point ; under mandible also slender, and curved at the 

 point ; nostrils tubular, opening by two separate orifices. Lep;s of 

 moderate length, tarsi compressed laterally ; toes three in front, 

 rather long, webbed throughout ; hind toe rudimentary. Wings long 

 and pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. 



P. major, the Greater Shearwater. It is the P. cinema of Selby ; 

 Procellaria Puffinua of Jenyns ; Puffin Majeur of the French ; and 

 Cinereous and Dusky Shearwater of English writers. This bird has 

 only been rarely shot in the British Islands. There are specimens in 

 the British Museum from the coasts of South Africa. M. Temminck 

 says it breeds by thousands on the banks of Newfoundland. Mr. 

 Yarrell says it is probably the Wandering Shearwater of Messrs. 

 Audubon and Nuttall. 



P. Anglorun, the Manx Shearwater; Procellaria Puffinus of Pennant ; 

 the Manx Puffin, Shearwater Petrel, and the Shearwater of English 

 writers. This bird is smaller than the last, its whole length is only 

 14 inches. The bill is blackish-brown, the iris is hazel, the head, back 

 of the neck, back, wings, and tail uniform brownish-black ; chin and 

 neck in front white ; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white ; 

 behind the thighs a patch of brownish-black. 



This little bird is an inhabitant of the ocean only, seeking the 

 shore for the purposes of incubation. They lay but one egg, aud 

 this of dazzling whiteness. The are not so numerous now as formerly 

 on the Calf of Man. They are still found in considerable numbers on 

 the coasts of South Wales. [PROCELLARID*.] 



(Yarrell, British Birdt.) 



PUG, a dwarf variety of the Dog, somewhat resembling a mastiff 

 or bulldog in miniature. The Dutch Pugs have more the aspect of 

 the large varieties last named than the French Pugs, some of which 

 latter are very small. Both are snappish and noisy, but capable of 

 strong attachment to their masters or mistresses. The French Pugs 

 are, docile and may be easily taught many amusing tricks. 



PULEX, the name given by Linnteus to a group of Insects, of 



1 K 



