PAS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PAS 



?.53 



remain. The cuttings of this will also take root, if they are 

 planted in a loamy soil not too stiff, in the spring, before 

 they begin to shoot. If these be covered with bell or hand 

 glasses to exclude the air, they will succeed much better than 

 when they are otherwise treated ; but when the cuttings put 

 out shoots, the air should be admitted to them, or they will 

 draw up weak, and spoil, and they must be afterwards treated 

 as the layers. Those plants which are propagated by layers, 

 or cuttings, do not produce fruit so plentifully as the seed- 

 ling plants ; and this plant, as well as many others, seldom 

 produces fruit after having been twice or thrice propagated 

 by layers or cuttings. If in very severe winters the stalks 

 be killed to the ground, the roots often put out new stalks 

 the following summer, therefore they should not be disturbed, 

 and where there is mulch laid on the ground about their 

 roots, there will be little danger of their being killed, 

 although all the stalks should be destroyed. 



36. Passiflora Filamentosa ; Long-rayed Blue Passion 

 Flower. Leaves palmate, in five acute scattered segments; 

 footstalks with two sessile glands ; bractes distinct ; rays 

 longer than the corolla. Native of America. 



37. Passiflora Serrata; Serrate-leaved Passion Flower, 

 Leaves palmate, serrate. Stems woody ; at each knot a 

 leaf, a tendril, and a flower, come out from the same point; 

 peduncle two inches long. The flower is inclosed in an 

 involucre, and both together are larger than a hen's egg. 

 The lower half of the flower when expanded resembles a 

 cup with a pentagon rim, white on the inside, hairy at bot- 

 tom. The corolla is composed of ten violet-coloured petals 

 in two rows, five in each, the inner much narrower than the 

 outer, all an inch and half long, with a small point at the 

 end, verging outwards. Fruit the size of an orange, round, 

 polished, like that of Coloqtrintida, except that next the 

 peduncle it is drawn out like a pear : it is filled with a white 



-mucilaginous pulp, containing many seeds, a little larger 

 than grains of wheat, oval, a little compressed, pointed at 

 one end, hardish, shining, hairy. Native of the island of 

 Martinique. See the first species. 



38. Passiflora Pedata; Curl-flowered Passion Flower. 

 Leaves pedate, serrate. Stems angular; the flowers rather 

 larger than those of the preceding ; the rays of the crown 

 are very close, deep red, with two or three white rings, very 

 slender at the end, and violet ; they are twisted so as to 

 resemble the serpents about Medusa's head. The five inner 

 parts of the corolla are entirely blue ; the five outer pale 

 green within, with abundance of little red dots ; on the out- 

 side clear green ; fruit the size and form of a middling apple; 

 rind regular and smooth, of a shining green colour, with 

 still brighter dots. Native of the island of Dominica. 



Passion Flower. See Passiflora. 



Pastinaca ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : umbel universal 

 manifold, flat; partial manifold : involucre universal none ; 

 partial none ; perianth proper, obsolete. Corolla : universal 

 uniform; florets all fertile; partial of five lanceolate, involute, 

 entire petals. Stamina: filamenta five, capillary; antherse 

 roundish. Pistil : germen inferior ; styles two, reflex ; stig- 

 mas blunt Pericarp: none; fruit compressed, flat, elliptic, 

 bipartile. Seeds : two, elliptic, girt round the edge, almost 

 flat 'on both sides. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Fruit: ellip- 

 tic, compressed, flat. Petals: involute, entire. Involucre: 

 neither general nor partial. The species are, 



1. Pastinaca Lucida; Shining-leaved Parsncp. Root- 

 leaves simple, cordate, lobate, shining, acutely crenate ; stem- 

 leaves ternate and pinnate ; branch-leaves simple, wedge- 

 ffped. Root biennial, thick, milky; stern stiff, rugged, 



grooved, and angular, branched from the bottom, almost the, 

 height of a man, when cut yielding a fetid rue-like, whitish, 

 tenacious gum ; branches numerous, panicled ; flowers yel- 

 low. Native of the south of Europe. 



2. Pastinaca Sativa ; Common Parsnep. Leaves simply 

 pinnate, downy beneath ; root biennial, simple, whitish, 

 putting forth some large fibres from the side ; stem single, 

 three or four feet high, erect, rigid, angular, pubescent, 

 hollow, branched ; flowering branches come out from the 

 axils of the leaves from top to bottom, supporting umbels 

 which are smaller than that which terminates the stem; 

 flowers small, yellow, with inflex regular petals. Wild Pars- 

 nep is a native of most parts of Europe, on the borders of 

 ploughed fields and on the banks of hedges, chiefly in a 

 calcareous or marly soil. It flowers from the end of June 

 through August. Garden Parsnep has smooth leaves, of a 

 light or yellowish-green colour, in which it differs from the 

 wild plant ; the stalks also rise higher, and are deeper chan- 

 nelled ; the peduncles are much longer, and the flowers of a 

 deeper yellow colour. The wild plant is sometimes smooth, 

 but more often hairy ; and the garden plant sometimes hairy, 

 but generally smooth. The roots are sweeter than Carrots, 

 and are much eaten by those who abstain from animal food 

 in Lent, or eat salt fish on fast days. They are highly nutri- 

 tious, and in the north of Ireland are brewed with malt, 

 instead of hops, and fermented wilth yeast. The liquor thus 

 obtained is agreeable. Hogs are fond of these roots, upon 

 which they soou grow fat. Allione observes, that although 

 the old roots of the wild Parsnep be hot and acrimonious, 

 yet we are not to attribute to them the bad effects which some 

 affirm them to have. The seeds contain aa essential oil, 

 and will often cure intermittent fevers. The seeds, used in 

 medicine, should be those of the wild plant; but the drug- 

 gists commonly sell the seed of the garden kind for it, which 

 they may purchase at an easy price when it is too old to 

 grow. A strong decoction of the root is a pretty strong 

 diuretic, and assists in removing obstructions of the viscera. 

 It is good against the jaundice and grave}, and moderately 

 promotes the menses. Villars remarks, that in Dauphiny 

 there are two remarkable varieties of the Wild Parsnep : one. 

 with an angular branched stem, approaching very nearly 

 to the Garden Parsnep ; the other with a simple round stem, 

 very slightly striated, and receding so far from the cultivated 

 plant that it seems to be a distinct species. The Parsnep 

 being large and sweet, and accounted very nourishing, is 

 universally cultivated in kitchen-gardens. The seeds should 

 be sown in February or March, in a rich mellow soil, welj 

 dug, that their roots may run downwards, the greatest excel- 

 lency being the length and size of the roots. They may be 

 sown alone, or with Carrots, as is practised by the kitchen- 

 gardeners near London, some of whom also mix Leeks, 

 Onions, and Lettuce, with their Parsneps ; but this is inju- 

 dicious, for it is not possible that so many different sorts 

 can thrive well together, except they are allowed a consi- 

 derable distance ; and if so, it will be equally the same to 

 sow the different sorts separate. However, Carrots and Para- 

 neps may be sow,n together very well, especially where the 

 Carrots are designed to be drawn off young; because the Pars- 

 neps generally spread most towards the end of the summer, 

 when the early Carrots are gone. When the plants are come 

 up, hoe them out to ten or twelve inches asunder, cutting up 

 all the weeds. This must be repeated three or four times, 

 according as you find the weeds grow ; but in the latter par.t 

 of summer, when the plants cover the ground, they will pre- 

 vent the growth of weeds. When the leaves begin to decay, 

 the roots may be dug up for use. Before this, they are s$l- 



