FED 



PED 



pact, and may be readily cut in small 

 masses of the size of brick.-*. By expo- 

 sure ;o the air it dries, and becomes very 

 inflammable. In this country it is the com- 

 mon fuel of large districts of Wales and 

 Scotland, and of some parts of England, 

 where coal is scarce and dear. Its ashes 

 are in high estimation as a manure, being 

 applied in the form of a top-dressing. 



PECK, a measure of capacity, four of 

 which make a bushel. 



PECORA, in natural history, the fifth 

 order of the class Mammalia. They have 

 no fore-teeth in the upper jaw, but seve- 

 ral in the lower ; feet hoofed, cloven : 

 they live on herbs, chew the cud, and 

 have four stomachs ; viz. the paunch, to 

 macerate and ruminate the food ; the 

 bonnet, reticulate, to receive it ; the 

 omasus, of numerous folds, to digest it ; 

 and the obomasus, to give it ascendency, 

 and prevent putrefaction. There are 

 eight genera, viz. 



Antelope Capra 



Bos Cervus 



Camelus Moschus 



Camelopardalis Ovis. 



PECTIS, in botany, a genus of the Syn- 

 genesia Polygamia Superrlua class and 

 order. Natural order of Composite Op- 

 positifolice. Corymbiferse, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character : calyx five-leaved, cy- 

 lindric ; florets in the ray five ; down 

 awned ; receptacle naked. There are 

 four species. These are annual plants, 

 aod natives of the West Indies. 



PECULIAR, signifies a particular pa- 

 rish or church that hath jurisdiction 

 within itself, for probate of wills, &c. ex- 

 empt from the ordinary, and the bishop's 

 court. The Court of Peculiars is that 

 which deals in certain parishes, lying in 

 several dioceses ; which parishes are ex- 

 empt from the jurisdiction of the bishops 

 of those dioceses, and are peculiarly be- 

 longing to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 

 within whose province there are fifty-se- 

 ven such peculiars. 



PEDALIUM, in botany, a genus of the 

 Didynamia Angiospermia class and order. 

 Natural order of Lurid a:. Bignoniae, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character : calyx five 

 parted; corolla subringent, with a five- 

 cleft border ; nut suberous, four-corner- 

 ed, thorny at the corners, two-celled ; 

 seeds two. There is but one species, 

 viz. P. murex, prickly-fruited peladium : 

 it is a native of the East-Indies. 



PEDALS, the largest pipes of an organ, 

 so called because played and stopped 

 with the foot. The pedals ate made 

 square, and of wood ; they are usually 

 thirteen in number. They are of mo- 



dern invention, and serve to carry the 

 sounds an octave deeper than the rest, 

 See OHGAX. 



PEDESTAL, in architecture, the low- 

 est part of an order of columns, being 

 that which sustains the column, and 

 serves it as afoot or stand. The pedes- 

 tal consists of three principal parts, viz. 

 a square trunk, or dye, which makes the 

 body : a cornice, the head: and a base, 

 the foot of the pedestal. There are as 

 many kinds of pedestals as there are of 

 orders of columns, viz. the Tuscan, Do- 

 ric, loaic, Corinthian, and Composite, 

 See ARCHITECTURE. 



PEDESTALS of statues, are such as serve 

 to support statues or figures. Vignola 

 observes, that there is no part of archi- 

 tecture more arbitrary, and in which 

 more liberty may be taken, than in the 

 pedestals of statues; there being no rules 

 of laws prescribed by antiquity, nor any 

 settled even by the moderns. There be- 

 ing 1 then no fixed proportion for these pe- 

 destals, the height depends on the situa- 

 tion, and the figure that they sustain . 

 when on the ground, the pedestal is usu- 

 ally two-thirds or two-fifths of that of the 

 statue ; the more massive the statue is, 

 the stronger the pedestal must be. Their 

 form and character, &c. are to be extra- 

 ordinary and ingenious, far from the re- 

 gularity and simplicity of the pedestals 

 of cohirnns. The same author gives a 

 multiplicity of forms, as oval, triangular, 

 multangular, Sic. 



PEDICELLARIA, in natural history, a 

 genus of the Vermes Mollusca class and 

 order. Body soft, and seated on a rigid, 

 fixed peduncle ; aperture single. Three 

 species only are enumerated. P. -globi- 

 fera ; head spherical ; inhabits the North- 

 ern seas, among the spines of echini ; 

 body minute, and resembling a mucor ; 

 head reddish, having the appearance of a 

 small cherry ; peduncle or stem tawny, 

 and covered with a gelatinous hyaline 

 skin. P. tridens : head three-lobed, the 

 lobes oval and awned ; neck round : this 

 class inhabits the Northern Seas, among 1 

 the spines of the echini : the neck is 

 smooth and hyaline, sometimes reddish ; 

 lobes of the head sometimes four, and 

 three times as long as the neck, rarefy 

 unarmed with awn ; peduncle reddish, 

 and three times as long as the neck. 



PEDICELLUS, in botany, a partial 

 flower stalk, or the proper stalk of any 

 single flower, in an aggregate or head of 

 flowers. The principal stalk, winch sup- 

 ports all the flowers, is called the com- 

 mon flower stalk : the stalk of each par- 



