PAN 



FAN 



on the nectary. There are ten species. 

 This genus consists of perennial bulbous- 

 rooted plants, from whence proceed long 

 narrow leaves, and a strong upright 

 scape, two feet in height, terminated by 

 a large spathe, bursting on one side, dis- 

 closing in some of the species many, in 

 others only one or two white flowers of 

 great elegance and fragrance. They are 

 chiefly natives of America and the West 

 Indies. 



PANCREAS, in anatomy, popularly 

 called the sweet-bread, is a large gland, 

 of a flattish shape and fleshy colour, ex- 

 tended behind the stomach, and reaching 

 from the duodenum transversely towards 

 the spleen. See ANATOMT. 



PANCREATIC juice, a liquid secret- 

 ed by the pancreas, which is found to 

 be analogous to saliva, and probably 

 serves the same purpose in promoting 

 the digestion of the food. See PHY- 

 SIOLOGY. 



PANDANUS, in botany, a genus of 

 the Dioecia Monandria class and order. 

 Essential character: calyx and corolla 

 none : male, anther sessile, inserted into 

 the ramifications of the spadix : female, 

 stigmas two ; fruit compound. There is 

 but one species, viz. P. odoratissimus, 

 sweet-scented pandanns. It is a native 

 of the wanner parts of Asia, where it is 

 much used for hedges ; it grows readily 

 from branches ; the tender white leaves 

 of the flowers yield that most delight- 

 ful fragrance, for which they are so ge- 

 nerally esteemed. Of all the perfumes it 

 is by far the richest and most powerful ; 

 the lower yellow pulpy part of the drupe 

 is sometimes eaten by the natives in 

 times of scarcity and famine ; also the 

 tender white base of the leaves, either 

 raw or boiled. 



PANDECTS, in the civil law, collec- 

 tions made by Justinian's order, of five 

 hundred and thirty-four decisions of the 

 ancient lawyers, on so many questions 

 occurring in the civil law : to which that 

 Emperor gave the force and authority of 

 law, by an epistle prefixed to them. The 

 pandects consist of fifty books, and make 

 the first part of the body of the civil law. 



PANIC, denotes an ill-grounded ter- 

 ror or fright. The origin of the phrase is 

 from Pan, one of the captains of Bacchus, 

 who, with a few men, put a numerous 

 army to rout, by a noise which his 

 soldiers raised in a rocky valley favoured 

 with a great number of echoes ; for this 

 stratagem making their number appear 

 much greater than it really was, the 



enemy quitted a very commodious en- 

 campment, and fled. Hence all ill-ground- 

 ed fears have been called panics, or panic 

 fears 



PANICLE, in botany, denotes a soft 

 woolly beard, on which the seeds of some 

 plants, as millets, reecis, &c. hang. 



PANICUJLA, in botany, a mode of 

 flowering, in which the fructifications are 

 dispersed upon footstalks variously sub- 

 divided. It is a sort of branching or dif- 

 fused spike, compo&ed of a number of 

 small spikes that are attached along a 

 common foot-stalk. The term is exem- 

 plified in oats, panic-grass, &c. 



PANICUM, in botany, panic-grass, a 

 genus ofi.be Triandria Digynia clas;? and 

 order. Natural order of Gramma, Gra- 

 mine<e, or Grasses. Essential character: 

 calyx two-valved, the third valve very 

 small. There are seventy-nine species For 

 an account of this very numerous genus, 

 we refer thv reader to Martyn's edition 

 of Miller's Botany. 



PAN1ERS, baskets used in fortifica- 

 tion. In military affairs the term is ex- 

 pressive of a man dangerous to society, 

 of one who ought to be guarded against 

 where confidence and discretion are ne- 

 cessary. 



PANEL, in law, an oblong piece of 

 parchment, containing the names of the 

 jurors, annexed to the writ of venire fa- 

 cias, and returned by the Sheriff to the 

 court from whence the process issued. 

 From this the jury is often called the 

 panel, and are said to be impanelled. 



PANNAGE, or PAWNAGE in law, the 

 fruit of trees, as acorns, crabs, nuts, mast 

 of beech, Sec. which the swine feed upon 

 in the woods, and which in some places 

 the inhabitants take as a right of com- 

 mon. 



PANNEL, in joinery, is a tympanum, 

 or square piece of thin wood, sometimes 

 carved, framed, or grooved in a larger 

 piece, between two upright pieces and 

 two cross-pieces. 



PANORPA, in natural history, a genus 

 of insects of the order Nturoptera : mouth 

 lengthened into a cylindrical horny pro- 

 boscis ; feelers four, nearly equal ; stem- 

 mata three ; antennx filiform, longer than 

 the thorax ; tail of the male armed with 

 a cheiate appendage ; of the female un- 

 armed. There are nine species, the most 

 familiar is, as its name imports, P. Fascia- 

 ta, an insect very frequently seen in 

 meadows during the early part of the 

 summer. It is a longish bodied fly, of 

 moderate size, with four yellowish wings. 



