Oxygen and its properties, first notices 

 of, 730, 731. 



Pacific, discovery and navigation of, 

 642 650 ; its results on the exten- 

 sion of cosmical knowledge, 643, 

 644. 



Painting, Landscape, its influence on 

 the study of nature, 440457; 

 early paintings of the Greeks, 441, 

 442; of the Romans, 442 444; 

 of the Indians, 442 ; paintings found 

 at Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabise, 

 443'; missals and mosaics of By- 

 zantine art, 444; Flemish school 

 of the Van Eycks, 445; Venetian 

 and Bolognese schools, 446, 447; 

 Claude and the Landscape painters. 

 447, 448; early paintings of tropical 

 scenery, 449 451; advantages of- 

 fered to the artist by the landscapes 

 and vegetation of the tropics, 451 

 453; panoramas, dioramas, and neo- 

 ramas, their scenic effect, 456, 457. 



Palseoutological science, dawn of, 731 

 734. 



Panoramas, more productive of effect 

 than scenic decorations, 457; sug- 

 gestions for their increase, 457. 



Pantschab, Chinese expedition under, 

 to the shores of the Caspian, 553. 



Parks of the Persian kings, 461, 462. 



Pastoral romances, their defects, 423. 



Pendulum, earliest use as a time mea- 

 surer, 591 ; modern, 735. 



Persia, extension of its rule, 505, 506. 



Persians, their poetry in relation to 

 nature, 397, 398, 402, 403, 406 

 410,460 462; its characteristics, 

 409; the four paradises celebrated 

 "by the Persian Poets, 409; parks of 

 the Persian kings, 460. 



Petrarch, his sonnet * on the death of 

 Laura,' 419; revival of the study of 

 classical literature, 622, 623. 



Phoenicians, their position among the 

 non-Hellenic civilized nations, on 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 their colonies, commerce, and navi- 

 gation, 480 502; use of weights 

 and measures, and metallic coinage, 

 490; of alphabetical writing, 490, 

 491 ; extent of their navigation and 

 caravan trade, 492,493,499; amber 

 trade, 493495. 



Pharmacy, chemical, first created by 

 the Arabs, 581 . 



Philostratus, his mention of ancien; 

 paintings, 441. 



Pigafetta, Antonio, nautical works of 

 631634, 664, 665, 668, 671. 



Pindar, his descriptions of nature 

 376. 



Pinturicchio, landscapes of, 445,446. 



Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, his disputes 

 with Columbus, 633, 638, 639. 



Plato, character of his descriptions of 

 nature, 381 384; on landscape 

 painting, 441 ; limits of the Medi- 

 terranean, 480 ; value of his doc- 

 trines in the dark ages, 542, 543; 

 misconceived dogmas, 615,616; his 

 ideas on attraction, 690, 691 ; on 

 the structure of the universe, 695. 



Playfair, 431. 



Pliny, the elder, his great work on 

 Nature, 389; its arrangement and 

 style, 563 566; on the locality of 

 the amber islands, 493; his descrip- 

 tion of the ariena (banana) of India 

 624; on the benefits of civilization, 

 552, 553. 



Pliny, the younger, descriptions of na- 

 ture in his letters, 385, 390, 391 ; 

 on the 'History of Nature,' by his 

 uncle, 565. 



Plutarch, notice of two Atlantic islands, 

 in his works, supposed to be Porto 

 Santo and Madeira, 497; on the 

 marks on the moon's disc, 561; 

 work on ' The Opinions of Philo- 

 sophers,' 692. 



Poetry, modern, descriptive, and land- 

 scape, its defects, 437 439. 



Polarisation of light, discovery of, 715. 



Polybius, on the number of peninsulas 

 in the Mediterranean, 482; "on Af- 

 rican and Indian elephants, 540, 

 541. 



Polygnotus, paintings of, 441. . 



Porsena, Lars, tradition on his tomb 

 503 



Porto Santo, 497, 498. See Plutarch. 



Portuguese heroic ages, impulses of, 

 421 ; faithful individuality of na- 

 ture in their great epic poet, Ca- 

 moens, 424, 427. 



Posidonius, his comparison of the tides 

 with the moon's supposed influence, 

 617. 



