PAL 



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P A IT 



when they fall off, leave traces, 

 consisting of a circular impression 

 round the stem. By the number 

 of these circles the age of the tree 

 may be ascertained. The existing 

 family of palms is supposed to 

 consist of nearly a thousand species, 

 of which the greater number are 

 limited to peculiar regions of the 

 torrid zone. 



PA'LMATE. | (palmatus, Lat.) Web- 

 PA'LMATED. ) bed, like the feet of 

 some water-birds ; deeply divided 

 into lobes like the fingers on 

 the hand ; resembling a hand ; 

 palmed or hand like. Applied 

 to leaves which are divided, 

 half-way, or more than half-way, 

 down the middle, into several 

 nearly equal segments, having a 

 space between each. 

 PALMI'PEDES. (from palmipes, that 

 hath its feet closed with a film or 

 web, Lat.) The sixth order of 

 birds in Cuvier's arrangement. 

 The goose and duck are familiar 

 examples. 



PA'LPI. In entomology, the palpi, or 

 feelers, are the auxiliary organs of 

 a masticating mouth. Those upon 

 the maxillae are termed the palpi 

 maxillares, or maxillary feelers; 

 those placed laterally upon the 

 labium, are designated the palpi 

 labiales, or labial feelers. 

 PALTJDI'NA. A genus of fresh-water 

 univalves, belonging to the family 

 Peristomata. Remains of paludinse 

 are very abundant in the Sussex 

 marble, and the P. fluviorum is its 

 common and characteristic fossil. 

 PAMPHBA'CTUS. A genus of ichthyo- 

 lites of the old red sandstone, two 

 species of which have been de- 

 scribed by Agassiz. It appears to 

 have become extinct at the close of 

 the Devonian period. 

 PA'NCAKE. The name given by Klein 

 to the Echinodiscus laganum, a 

 species of fossil echinus, belonging 

 to the division Catocysti. 



PANDA'NEA. } (frompandus, Lat. crook- 

 PANDA'NTJS. ) ed.) The screw-pine, 

 so named from the spiral arrange- 

 ment of its leaves, is a monocoty- 

 ledonous tree, growing only in the 

 warmer zones, and principally near 

 the sea. The pandanea, like the 

 cocoa-nut palm, is generally the 

 first vegetable colonist of the newly- 

 raised coral islands. Its appearance 

 is that of a gigantic pine-apple 

 plant, with arborescent stems. The 

 pandanus bears a large spherical, 

 drupaceous fruit : the seed within 

 each drupe being enclosed within 

 a hard nut. From the pandanus 

 growing near to the sea, its fruit 

 frequently drops into the water, 

 and is drifted by the waves and 

 winds to distant shores : thus the 

 elements of vegetation are trans- 

 ported to the emerging coral islands, 

 where it vegetates. A fossil fruit 

 of the pandanus was found by Mr. 

 Page in the inferior oolite, and is 

 in the Oxford museum. It is of 

 the size of a large orange, and is 

 covered by a stellated rind, or epi- 

 carpium, composed of hexagonal 

 tubercles, forming the summits of 

 cells, which occupy the entire 

 surface of the fruit. Fruits of a 

 genus, to which M. Adam Brong- 

 niart has given the name of Pan- 

 danocarpum, occur, together with 

 cocoa-nut fruit, at an early period 

 of the tertiary formations, in the 

 London clay of the Isle of Sheppey. 

 PA'NGOLIN. A species of manis, or 

 scaly lizard ; called also the scaly 

 ant-eater. Its armature is com- 

 posed of separate, horny, moveable 

 scales. It is destitute of teeth, has 

 a very extensile tongue, and lives 

 on ants and termites. 

 PA'NICLE. (panicula, Lat. a bunch 

 or cluster.) A species of inflo- 

 rescence, in which the flowers are 

 scattered on peduncles, variously 

 subdivided without any order, and 

 more or less close. The oat affords 

 a familiar example. "When the 



