PAS 



OR. ROTANTCAL DICTIONARY. 



P A V 



259 



Their qualities and uses are pointed out under their bota- 

 nical names, as they occur in the regular arrangement of the 

 genera to which they belong. It may save much trouble to 

 inform the reader, that the following plants are useful, either 

 as medicine, or good for quadrupeds. Cardamine Pratensis, 

 Rumex, Acetosa, Tragopogon; most of the leguminous plants, 

 as Lotus, the Vetches in general, the Medicago, and espe- 

 cially the Trefoils, Milfoil, Succory, and Ribwort, which are 

 weed's in their wild state, are so much improved by cultivation 

 as to become useful plants. The principal pasture herbs that 

 are injurious are the following : Allium Vineale and Ursinum ; 

 Anemone Nem.orosa; Bellis Perennis, occupying so much 

 room ; Caltha Palustris ; the various species of Thistle, and 

 of Carex or Sedge ; Centaurea Nigra, Calcitrapa ; Cbsero- 

 phyllum; Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum ; Colchicum, Erica, 

 Heracleum, Sphondylium, Inula Dysenterica, Rushes, Mer- 

 curialis Perennis, Pedicularis, Pteris, several sorts of Ranun- 

 culus; and Rhinanthus Crista Galli, which is almost the only 

 annual plant which keeps its ground in pastures to any great 

 extent, owing to its seeding early. It can only be kept 

 down by pasturing the ground two years successively. Other 

 annuals, such as Purging Flax, the Eyebrights, Hawkweeds, 

 and Sheep's Scabious, being of little consequence. Rnmex 

 and Senecio Jacobaea are also injurious. In order to extirpate 

 these weeds from pastures, the docking iron, the spud, and 

 the hand, should be unremittingly employed on fit occasions. 

 The biennial thistles may be cut off within the ground, 

 and, if not suffered to seed, may be easily destroyed, unless 

 renewed from their nurseries in hedge-rows, way-sides, &c. 

 The Carduus Acaulis ought to be diligently cut up with the 

 spud ; but it infests only dry upland pastures. The Serratula 

 Arvensis is a true perennial, and runs dreadfully at the root; 

 thus increasing two ways, by root and seed : it is rather an 

 arable weed, and cannot be extirpated by ploughing three 

 inches deep. This is common in rich pastures in the 

 neighbourhood of arable lands, head-lands, and way-sides, 

 where it is suffered to seed without control. In mowing- 

 grounds, it is seldom suffered to seed ; but mowing certainly 

 tends to spread it, if it be cut down while in flower, though 

 some think it destroys it. The only radical cure for this 

 evil in pastures is, to extirpate the plants by the docking 

 iron and the hand after rain, when alone they will pull out, 

 and even then seldom completely. The ground therefore 

 must be carefully looked over a second time, to take out 

 those thistles which have sprung up from pieces of roots left 

 in on the first operation. The Carices or Sedges, the Junci 

 or Rushes, Caltha or Marsh Marigold, Iris or Flag, Pedi- 

 cularis or Red Rattle, the whole tribe of water plants, and 

 snch as require a soil tenacious of wet, can only be effec- 

 tually destroyed by judicious draining and dressing with 

 coal-ashes, and other warm manures. Fern or Brakes must 

 be extirpated by paring and burning. The Docks, Ragwort, 

 and Knapweed, will yield only to the docking iron and the 

 hand ; and should never be suffered to seed, nowithstand- 

 ing the notion that prevails in the inland counties, that the 

 best way to get rid of Docks on grass-land, is to let them 

 spend themselves by seeding: if the old plant be thus spent, 

 it leaves an innumerable progeny to represent it. The fol- 

 lowing four things are necessary in order to improve pas- 

 ture-land : 1 . Draining and watering, for each of which see 

 Meadows. 2. Weeding and top-dressing. 3. Laying the 

 land so as to clear itself of surface water, levelling ant-hills 

 and other inequalities, and running a heavy roller over it in 

 the spring. 4. Putting on different stock at proper seasons, 

 so that the herbage may be kept fine by being closely bitten, 

 and the surface regular by not being poached in wet times, 

 VOL. ii. 87. 



by heavy cattle. Nou * w * e d should be suffered to seed, 

 nor a tuft of stale grass to stand ; n a pasture-ground, which 

 should not at least once during the summer be levelled with 

 the scythe ; thus at a small expense ^eeds will be converted 

 into nutriment, and waste ground into aitt*.^ r ass. See Grass 

 and Meadows. 



Pavetta ; a genus of the class Tetrandria, ordet Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth bell-sKaped, 

 very small, obsoletely four-toothed, surrounding the germen'. 

 Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-form; tube long, slender, cylin- 

 dric; border five-parted, spreading, shorter by half than the 

 tube; segments lanceolate. Stamina: filamenta four, very 

 short, above the throat of the corolla ; antheree awl-shaped, 

 spreading, the length of the border. Pistil : germen inferior, 

 turbinate; style filiform, twice as long as the corolla; stigma 

 thickish, oblong, oblique. Pericarp: berry roundish, one- 

 celled. Seeds: two, convex on one side, cartilaginous. 

 Observe. Berry two-celled. Seeds : solitary, one often abor- 

 tive, so that the fruit seems to be one-seeded. There are 

 frequently two coadunate berries, crowned with a double 

 calix. To avoid confusion, Loureiro would place such of 

 these plants as have a one-seeded berry in this genus; such 

 as have a two-seeded berry in that of Ixora ; and those 

 which have a one-celled two-seeded berry, in a new genus. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel- 

 form, superior. Stigma: curved. Berry: two-seeded, one 

 often abortive. The species are, 



1. Pavetta Indica. Smooth: leaves lanceolate, elliptic, 

 stipules smooth within ; calices obsoletely four-toothed ; flow- 

 ers in bundles, very white ; corymbs trichotomous, fastigiate, 

 on a long filiform peduncle. Native 1 of the East Indies. 



2. Pavetta Villosa. Branches and calices villose, hoary; 

 leaves lanceolate-elliptic; flowers in bundles. Branches op- 

 posite, four-cornered, jointed, densely villose, hoary; the last 

 joints more compressed. Found in Arabia Felix. 



3. Pavetta Longiflora. Branches smooth ; leaves lanceo- 

 late, elliptic; stipules hairy within; calices four-cleft; flowers 

 in bundles. It may be doubted whether it is any thing more 

 than a variety of the preceding. The branches and leaves 

 are quite smooth ; the calix has a few small hairs scattered 

 over it, not visible without a magnifier ; corolla an inch and 

 half in diameter. Native of Arabia Felix. 



4. Pavetta Caffra. Leaves obovate; flowers subumbellate ; 

 calices bristle-awned. This is a smooth tree, with round 

 branches ; heads of flowers sessile, terminating the shorter 

 branchlets. Native of the Cape. 



5. Pavetta Pentandria. Leaves oblong, lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate; panicle trichotomous, axillary; flowers five-stamined, 

 white, highly fragrant, appearing in the vernal months. This 

 is a shrub, with a stem the height of a man, upright, branched, 

 even. It flowers in the spring, and is commo.nly called in 

 Jamaica Wild Coffee : it is as it were a middle species 

 between Psychotria, Coff'ca, and Pavetta, which are very 

 nearly allied ; but it seems to approach nearest to the last in 

 its inflorescence, and the form of the flowers, although they 

 have five stamina. Native of the West Indies. 



6. Pavetta Arenosa. Branches brachiate ; leaves tuber- 

 cled, opposite. This is an unarmed shrub, upright, four 

 feet high, with many brachiate reclining branches. There 

 are so many prominent tubercles on each side of the leaves, 

 that they appear as if they had sand sprinkled on them, and 

 hence the Chinese call this the Sand Plant. Flowers white, 

 terminating, fastigiate. Native of China, near Canton. 



7. Pavetta Parasitica. Stem parasitical; leaves in whorls; 

 flowers in little axillary balls. This is common upon trees 

 in the gardens of Cochin-china. 



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