OF BRITISH PLANTS. 179 



PERSICARIA, see PEACH-WORT. 



PESTILENCE-WEED, G. pestilenz-wurz, the butterbur 

 coltsfoot, from its having been formerly, as Lyte tells us, 

 of great repute as "a sovereign medicine against the plague 

 and pestilent fevers;" for, as the Ortus Sanitatis more 

 explicitly declares (c. ccxlv.) ; " Der safft von disem 

 kraute, gemischet mit essig und rauten-safft, yeglichs 

 gleich vil, und dis getrunckeii des abents auff ein loffel 

 foil, machet sere schwitzen, und treibet mit dem schweiss 

 auss die pestilentz." Tussilago Petasites, L. 



PETTIGREE or PETTIGRUE, Fr. petit, little, and greou, 

 holly, the butcher's broom, so called from its prickly 

 leaves, Ruscus aculeatus r I/Her. 



PETTY-MULLEIN, the cowslip, its name in old herbals, as 

 translated from L. verbasculum, this plant having been 

 regarded as a small species of verbascum or mullein, 



Primula veris, L. 



PETTY-WHIN, a small prickly shrub, a name given in 

 Lyte's Herbal to the restharrow, but by later botanists to 

 the needle-furze, Genista anglica, L. 



PEWTER-WORT, from its being used to clean pewter 

 vessels, Equisetum hyemale, L. 



PHEASANT'S EYE, from its bright red corolla and dark 

 centre, Adonis autumnalis, L. 



PICK-NEEDLE, see PINK-NEEDLE, and POWKE-NEEDLE. 

 Erodium moschatum, L. 



PICK-PURSE, from its robbing the farmer by stealing the 

 goodness of his land ; a name that in some counties is 

 given to the spurry, but seems to have been assigned to 

 the shepherd's pouch more especially, on account of the 

 number of little purses that it displays, its purse-like 

 silicles ; Capsella Bursa pastoris, L. 



PIGEON'S-GRASS, Gr. Trepiarepewv, a place for pigeons, 

 a name given to it, according to Galen, as quoted by 

 Matthioli (1. iv. c. 56), from pigeons frequenting it : " quod 



