PENNY 



4574 



PENSION 



provost. A generous system of scholarships is 

 maintained, a large number being awarded to 

 graduates of the Philadelphia public schools. 

 Women are admitted to courses in the gradu- 

 ate department. The library contains about 

 450,000 volumes, and there are about 610 in- 

 structors and nearly 8,100 students. 



PENNY, pen' i, a small bronze English coin 

 which is equivalent to four farthings, one- 

 twelfth of a shilling and one two-hundred- 

 fortieth of a pound sterling. In United States 

 money, a pound sterling is equal to $4.86-1-, and 

 an English penny to about two cents (see 

 Table oj Equivalent Values under the heading 

 DENOMINATE NUMBERS). Up to the time of 

 Edward I, the English penny was so deeply in- 

 dented with a cross that it could be easily 

 broken into two or four equal parts, thus giv- 

 ing halfpennies and farthings (four things). At 

 present the coin weighs 145.833 Troy grains and 

 intrinsically is worth one-fourth its face value. 

 Its abbrevation is d, from its similarity to the 

 Roman coin denarius (which see). A German 

 silver coin has a similar name, pfennig, and the 

 United States one-cent piece is commonly called 

 a penny. The plural of penny, when the value 

 of the coins is considered, is pence. See CENT. 



PENNYROYAL, peniroi'al, a name applied 

 in America to a medicinal herb of the mint 

 family, the leaves of which have a strongly- 

 pungent odor. The oil yielded by the plant is 

 used in medicine for its stimulating properties. 

 Preparations containing oil of pennyroyal are 

 used to drive away mosquitoes, as its odor is 

 intensely disagreeable to them. The North 

 American pennyroyal grows in fields and wood- 

 lands from Cape Breton Island to Florida, and 

 west as far as Nebraska. Its stem, which is 

 branched and hairy, grows from six inches to 

 a foot and a half in height and bears small, 

 purple flowers that bloom from July to Septem- 

 ber. This plant, also called tickweed and squaw 

 mint, is similar in properties to the European 

 species, which is the true pennyroyal. 



PENOBSCOT, penob'skot, the largest river 

 in the state of Maine. It rises in a small lake 

 near the Canadian border, and after flowing 

 eastward through pine forests, where it widens 

 to form Chesuncook and Pamedumcook lakes, 

 it is joined by the Seboosis River and flows 

 southward into Penobscot Bay, an inlet of the 

 Atlantic. Although about 350 miles in length, 

 it is navigable for ocean steamers only to Ban- 

 gor, sixty miles from the sea. However, smaller 

 boats ascend the stream much farther into a 

 vast lumbering region. In the spring the river 



furnishes transportation for the logs which are 

 floated for miles down to the sawmills. In the 

 winter season ice is harvested in large quan- 

 tities. 



PENSACOLA, pcnsakoh'la, FLA., a port of 

 entry on Pensacola Bay, and the county seat 

 of Escambia County, is the third largest city 

 in the state, ranking next to Jacksonville and 

 Tampa. Its population in 1910 was 22,982; in 

 1916 it was 26,272 (Federal estimate). It is in 

 the extreme western part of the state, six miles 

 north of the Gulf of Mexico, forty-eight miles 

 southeast of Mobile and 204 miles west of Tal- 

 lahassee, and on the Gulf, Florida & Alabama, 

 the Louisville & Nashville and the Pensacola, 

 Alabama & Tennessee railroads. Pensacola Bay 

 affords a large, deep, landlocked harbor, and 

 its entrance is protected by forts Pickens, Bar- 

 rancas and McRee. A government navy yard 

 here is the winter station of submarine and tor- 

 pedo boats. Several steamship lines make regu- 

 lar sailings to American and transatlantic ports. 



Interesting features of the city are the Fed- 

 eral building, courthouse, state armory, city 

 hall, the United States Naval Hospital, Pensa- 

 cola Hospital and the laboratory of the State 

 Board of Health. Seven miles distant is the 

 United States Naval Aeronautic School. In the 

 vicinity are the historic remains of the old 

 Spanish Fort San Carlos, built in 1696, and of 

 the English Fort George. The commerce of 

 the port is important. The annual value of 

 exports is approximately $20,000,000, that of 

 imports $2,000,000. The leading articles of trade 

 are lumber and fish, and among others are in- 

 cluded naval stores, cotton, phosphate, coal and 

 grain. 



Pensacola was permanently settled in 1696 by 

 a Spanish colony from Vera Cruz. It has been 

 a possession of Spain (1696), France (1719), 

 Spain (1723), England (1763) and Spain (1781), 

 successively. Because of aid rendered to the 

 British in the War of 1812, it was captured by 

 General Jackson in 1814, and in 1818 was re- 

 taken by him from the Spaniards, who were 

 encouraging hostilities on the part of the Semi- 

 nole Indians. By treaty the entire state passed 

 into possession of the United States in 1819. In 

 1864 a great fire partially destroyed Pensacola. 

 In 1913 the city adopted the commission plan 

 of government. 



PENSION, pen' shun, a stated sum of money 

 paid to a person at periodical intervals. As 

 commonly understood, however, a pension is a 

 stated allowance granted by a government to 

 citizens or subjects on account of services ren- 



