PAR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PAR 



245 



filamenta. Pistil: germen superior, round, four-cornered, 

 or subglobular ; styles four, spreading, shorter than the sta- 

 mina ; stigma downy. Pericarp : berry globular, four-cor- 

 nered, four-celled. Seeds: several, globose, in a double 

 row. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : four-leaved. Pe- 

 tals: four, narrower. Berry: four-celled. The only known 



species is, 



1. Paris Quadrifolia; Herb Paris, True Love, or One 

 Berry. Few plants are more readily distinguished than this, 

 .by the proportion and regularity of all the parts. Root per- 

 ennial, fleshy; stalk quite simple, or unbranched, upright, 

 smooth, round, naked, a foot high ; leaves four, in a cross 

 or sort of whorl, spreading, sessile, at the top of the stalk 

 ovate, quite entire, drawn to a point, smooth, nerved under- 

 neath, three or four inches long, and two wide ; peduncle 

 single, rising from the middle of the four leaves, somewhat 

 angular, about an inch long, supporting one greenish flower 

 art inch in diameter; calicine leaflets four, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, reflex. The leaves and berries are said to partake of 

 the properties of Opium. Linneus says, the root dried and 

 reduced to powder will vomit as well as ipecacuanha, but 

 must be taken in twice the quantity. The juice of the ber- 

 ries is useful in inflammations of the eyes. An ointment made 

 of the leaves is cooling, and disperses swellings and tumors 

 in any part of the body. The juice of them has the same 

 effect, and speedily removes inflammations of the eyes, if they 

 are frequently bathed therewith. It is, after all, a suspicious 

 plant, although it has often been employed in medicine. 

 Bergius recommends the herb for discussing buboes and 

 other inflammatory tumors ; also for the hooping or convul- 

 sive cough. Gesner found it to be an antidote to the poison 

 of the Nux Vomica. Having given a scruple each, of the 

 poison, to two dogs, he gave one a drachm of the Paris, and 

 it recovered ; the other died. He also took a drachm of the 

 herb himself, without any effect except dryness of the fauces, 

 and some sweat. Burghard, on the contrary, says, that car- 

 dialgia and vomiting ensues from the use of it; and Kroeber 

 was credibly informed that a child died by eating the berries, 

 and that another was recovered with difficulty. Gesner 

 asserts, that the berries are poisonous to poultry. It ought 

 therefore to be administered with great caution : the dose is 

 one scruple twice a day. It is a native of most of the coun- 

 tries of Europe, particularly in the northern parts ; and also 

 of Japan. It is not uncommon in Great Britain, especially 

 in thick strong woods on a strong soil. Gerarde says, it grew 

 plentifully in Chalkney woods near Wakes Colne in Essex ; 

 in the parsonage orchard at Radwinter, and in Bocking park 

 by Braintree, in the same county ; in the wood by Robin 

 Hood's well, near Nottingham; in the Clapper Moor, near 

 Canterbury; in Blackburn wood, at Merton in Lancashire; 

 in Dingley wood, six miles from Preston in Aundernesse ; 

 also at Hesset, in the same county. Though Parkinson says 

 that in his time it was lost in the above places by every one 

 resorting thither for it, there is no small probability of his 

 being mistaken in most instances; we therefore exhort those 

 diligent herbarists who live in those parts to examine for 

 themselves. Parkinson says, that it was found in his time 

 in Hinbury wood, three miles from Maidstone in Kent; in a 

 wood called Harwarsh, near Pinnenden Heath, by Maid- 

 stone ; in Longwood, near Chiselhurst, and in the next called 

 Iseet's wood ; and in a wood over against Boxly Abbey near 

 Maidstone. Mr. Newton found it in the long spring by 

 Petses bogs at Chiselhurst ; and Mr. Ray, in Lampit Grove 

 at Notley in Essex. Mr. Charles Miller discovered it in a 

 little wood not far from Hampstead, though Mr. Curtis has 

 omitted it in his Flora Londinensis. It has also been met 



with at Hanging wood near Harefield, Middlesex ; atHawnes, 

 Renhold, and Clapham ; Park wood in Bedfordshire; in 

 Kingston, Eversden, and Wood Ditton woods, Cambridge- 

 shire ; in Love-lane near Derby; at Selborne in Hampshire; 

 in Ripton wood, Huntingdonshire, and Byseing wood in Kent; 

 in Hollinghall, Stocking, and Okeley woods, in Leicester- 

 shire ; in Brampton, Cransley, and Hardwick woods, and 

 Whittleborough forest, in Northamptonshire; in Asply and 

 Colwick woods, Nottinghamshire; in Headington-wick Copse, 

 Oxfordshire; in the wood near the Devil's Den near Clifton 

 upon Teine; also iu the woods on the sides of Breedon Hill, 

 and about Frankly, in Worcestershire; near Rainsford, and 

 in Raby Park. In Scotland, in a wood a mile to the south 

 of Newbottle near Dalkeith ; in the den of Bethaick, four 

 miles from Perth; and also in the wood of Methuen, in 

 Perthshire. This curious little plant flowers in May, and the 

 berry ripens in July. It is with great difficulty preserved in 

 gardens. Take up the plants from the places where they 

 grow wild, preserving good balls of earth to their roots, and 

 plant them in a shady moist border, where they may remain 

 undisturbed. 



Parkinsonia; a genus of the class Decandria, order Mo-- 

 nogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, at the base bell-shaped, flattish, permanent; border 

 ri ve-parted ; segments lanceolate-ovate, acute, coloured, reflex, 

 almost equal, deciduous. Corolla: petals five, with claws 

 almost equal, spreading very much, ovate ; the lowest kid- 

 ney-form; claw upright, very long. Stamina: filamenta ten, 

 awl-shaped, villose below, declined; antherse oblong, decum- 

 bent. Pistil: germen round, long, declined; style filiform, 

 rising, the length of the stamina ; stigma blunt. Pericarp : 

 legume very long, round, swelling over the seeds, (whence 

 it is necklace-form,) acuminate. Seeds: several, one to each 

 joint of the legume, oblong, subcylindric, blunt. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Cafe: five-cleft. Petals: five, ovate, 

 the lowest kidney-form. Style: none. Legume: necklace- 

 form. The only known species is, 



1. Parkinsonia Aculeata ; Prickly Parkinsonia. Jacquin 

 describes it as a very elegant tree, with the bark both of the 

 trunk and branches remaining along time green and shining, 

 but when the tree grows old becoming brownish and streaked. 

 The wood is white ; the prickles are solitary, awl-shaped, 

 subaxillary, acuminate, slightly recurved, four lines in length, 

 on the older branches frequently by threes, the middle one 

 very strong, and nine lines in length ; leaves shining, three, 

 four, or five, from the aame axil, on a midrib a foot long, 

 broad, and flatted; leaflets oblong, numerous; racemes loose; 

 simple, smooth, containing about ten flowers, which smell 

 very sweet, and are yellow, with the uppermost petal varie- 

 gated at the base with scarlet spots. This seems to be 

 distinguished from Poinciana merely by the equality of the 

 calicine segments : these two trees, sown very thick, make 

 most beautiful hedges. This plant flowers in the first year 

 from seed, and grows very fast. It bears long slender 

 bunches of yellow flowers, hanging down like those of Labur- 

 num, and perfuming the air to a considerable distance, on 

 which account the inhabitants of the West Indies plant them 

 about their houses. In Jamaica it is called Jerusalem Thorn. 

 It was introduced there from the Main, but now grows wild 

 in many parts, and in the other islands of the West Indies, 

 where it was originally cultivated for inclosures. It is pro- 

 pagated by seeds, which should be sown in small pots filled 

 with light fresh earth, early in the spring, and the pots 

 must be plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, where, in 

 three weeks' or a month's time, the plants will come up, 

 when they should be kept clear from weeds, and frequently 



