PEW 



PETTY bag, an office in Chancery, tlie 

 three clerks of which record the return of 

 ail inquisitions out of every county, and 

 make all patents of comptrollers, gangers, 

 customers, &c. 



PETUNSr', in the arts, one of the prin- 

 cipal substances made use of in the manu- 

 facture of porcelain : the other is kaolin. 

 Petunse consists of 



Silex 74 



Alumina 145 



Lime . 5 5 



Kaolin consists of 



Silex . . 

 Alumina 

 Lime 

 Water 



94 



74 

 16.5 



2 



7 



99.5 



Therefore the two together consist ol 

 siiex and alumina, with less than 5 per 

 cent, of lime. See PORCELAIN. 



PEUCEDANUM, in botany, sulphur. 

 tvort, a genus of the Pentandria Digynia 

 class and order. Natural order of Umbel- 

 latae, or Umbelliferse. Essential charac- 

 ter : fruit ovate, striated on both sides, 

 girt with a membrane ; involucres very 

 short. There are eleven species, of which 

 P. ofhVmale, common sulphur wort, lias a 

 perennial root, dividing into many strong 

 fibres, running deep into the ground ; 

 leaves from the root branching into five 

 parts, and these again into three, each of 

 these divisions sustaining three narrow 

 leaflets, which, when bruised, emit a 

 strong scent like sulphur ; foot-stalks 

 channelled; stems nearly two feet in 

 height, channelled, and dividing into two 

 or three branches, each terminated by a 

 large, regular umbel of yellow flowers, 

 composed of several small umbels. It is 

 a native of the southern parts of Europe, 

 in moist meadows. 



PEWTER, a factitious metal, used in 

 making-domestic utensils, as plates, dishes, 

 &c. The basis of this metal is tin which 

 is converted into pewter, by mixing at the 

 rate of an hundred weight of tin, with fif- 

 teen pounds of lead, and six pounds of 

 brass. Besides this composition, which 

 makes the common pewter, there are 

 other kinds compounded of tin, regulus 

 of antimony, bismutb, und copper, in seve- 

 ral proportions. 



PEZIZA, in botany, a genus of t!i 

 pryptogamia Fmu>-i class and order. Ge- 

 neric character: fungus hell-shapcd, ses- 

 sile, concealing lens-shaped seed-bearing 1 

 bodies; plant concave; seeds on the tip- 

 per surface only ; discharged by jerks. 

 Of this genus of fungus, Linnaeus has ele- 

 ven species, and Dr. Withering no less 

 than forty British species in lus arrange- 

 ment. 



PHACA, in botany, bastard vetch, a ge- 

 nus of the Diadelphia Decandria class and 

 older. Natural order of Papilionacese, or 

 Leguminosx. Essential character : le- 

 gume half, two-celled. There are eleven 

 species. 



PHJETHUSA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua class and 

 order. Essential character: calyx sub- 

 cylindric, many-leaved, with unequal, re- 

 curved scales ; florets hermaphrodite, se- 

 veral in the disk ; females one or two in 

 the ray ; receptacle chaffy ; seeds hispid, 

 without any proper down. There is but 

 one species, viz. P. Americana, a native 

 of Virginia. 



PHJ2TON, the Tropic bird, in natural 

 history, a genus of birds of the order An- 

 seres. Generic character: bill s>harp-edg- 

 ed and pointed ; compressed, and slight- 

 ly sloping down; nostrils pervious and 

 oblong; four toes all webbed together; 

 tail wedge-formed, the two middle fea- 

 thers extending far beyond others. There 

 are three species .- P. zetheretis, the com- 

 mon tropic bird, is of the size of a wi- 

 geon, and the two middle feathers of the 

 tail measure a foot and a half at least, 

 These birds are always found within, or 

 at least very near, the tropics. They fre- 

 quently soar to a prodigious height, but 

 generally are near the surface of the wa- 

 ter, watching the movements of the flying 

 fish, whose escape from the pursuit of the 

 shark, porpoise, and other enemies be- 

 neath, is attended with destruction from 

 the frigate, or man of war bird, the peli- 

 can, and tropic bird above. They occa- 

 sionally repose upon the backs of the 

 drowsy tortoises, as the latter float upon, 

 the water, and in these circumstances are 

 taken with the greatest ease. They build 

 in the woods, and will perch on trees. 

 They shed their long feathers every year, 

 and the natives of the Sandwich islands, 

 where the tropic birds abound, pick them 

 up in great abundance in various parts, 

 and consider them as an elegant material 

 in their curious and elaborate dresses, 

 particularly in their mourning suits. 

 These birds are not admired for food. 



PHALANG1UM, in natural history, a 



