P Y C 



P Y G 



in July and Au(ru(l. Pmjli. This, like the red, is pcrcii- 

 nial. It nearly rt-fcmbles the lait, but tlifTcrs in having en- 

 tire leaves, and one or two denfo axillary whorls oi Jlonuers, 

 befides the folitary terminal heads. The bradeas are alfo 

 faid to he more pointed. ' 



PYCNI, w^jKv :., in the Ancient Mnfic, was ufed for fuch 

 founds or chords of a tetrachord as might enter the fpillnm, 

 Or TOVK^cv. 



Thefe were the hypatse, the parypatjc, and the lichani, 

 of the fcveral tetrachords. The hypatx were called Im- 

 rypycnl, ^y.fV7:vxmi; the parypatx, mf/o/i_)'fwi, i^so-o'^zvx.toi ; and 

 the lichani, oxypycm ; c^vrnv.'.m; becaui'e the iirfl were the 

 lowell notes ; the fecond, the middle notes ; and the third, 

 the highcll of the fpiffum. Such chords as could never 

 enter the fpifi'um were called apycni, a.'vjvy.wA, VTzc/.Tn-a^m, 



Hence, in the Greek fcale or diagram, containing 

 eighteen chords, there were five barypycni, as many mefo- 

 pycni, and an equal number of oxypycni, together with 

 three apycni. The apycni and barypycni were llabiles or 

 fixed chords ; but the mefopycni and oxypycni were movea- 

 ble, or mobiles. 



PYCNITE, in Mineralogy, is the mineral called feludite 

 by Klaproth, leucolite by Daubenton, and fchorlous beryl 

 by Werner, who (ir(l clailed it as a fiibfpecies of beryl. It 

 is now arranged with the topaz, to which its conltituent 

 parts bear a nearer refemblance. It is remarkable for con- 

 taining, like the topaz, a portion of fluoric acid. Pycnite 

 is generally fo\md cryllallizcd in long fix-iided prilms im- 

 bedded in granite rocks. Small four-fided prifms may be 

 obtained by a careful mechanical divifion from the large cryf- 

 tals ; the bafes of thefe are rhombs with angles of 120° and 

 60°. Bucholz cotifiders this to be the primitive form of 

 pycnite. The colour of this mineral is either various fliades 

 of white, paffing on one fide from greyifh and yellowifh- 

 white to ilraw-yellow, or from reddilb-white to a peacli 

 bloffoni and crimfon red. Some fpecimens are marked with 

 fpots of violet blue. The cryitals are tranflucent. The 

 crols frafturc is imperfetlly foliated, the longitudinal imper- 

 feftly imall conchoidal. It is harder than quartz, which it 

 Icratches, but is eafily broken in a direction perpendicular 

 to the axis of the cryitals. Its fpecific gravity is 3.61. 

 By the analyfis of Vauquelin, pycnite contams 



Lofs I. 



99 



Bucholz makes the proportion of fluoric acid 1 7 per cent. 

 There is no lefs difference in the proportion of fluoric acid 

 in difFerent fpecimens of the topaz, as given by Klaproth 

 and Vai.quelin. See Topaz. B. 



PYCNON, -:j«..ov. See Spissum. 



PYCNOSTYLE, 7ru~ioruXo , formed from •^ruxv,,-, clofe, 

 and ^lA . , column, \n\.\\e Ancient Jlrch'itecliire, a building where 

 the columns Hand very clofe to one aiiolhtr ; one diameter 

 and a half of the columu being allowed for the inter- 

 columnation. 



The pvcnollyle is tlie fmalk-ft of ail the intercolumnations 

 mentioned by Vitruvius. Some make it the fume with 

 J\J}fh- ; others dliUnguilh the latter by its allowing half a 

 module more in the C' rinthian uitercolumnalion. 



The pycnoftyle, Mr. Evelyn obfervcs, chiefly belonged 



to the Compofite order, and was ufed before the moft mag. 

 nificent buildings ; as, at prcfcnt, in the peryllyle of St. 

 Peter's at Rome, confiltiiig of near three hundred columns ; 

 and fuch as yet remain ot the ancients among the late dif- 

 covered ruins of Palmyra. 



PYCNOTICS, Incrahsants, or medicines of an aque- 

 ous nature, which have the faculty of cooling and condenf- 

 ing, or thickening, the humours. 



The word, in its original Greek, wi/xmriMv, fignifies 

 fomething that has the power of thickening. 



Purflane, the nenuphar or water-lily, folaiuim, Sec. are 

 ranked among pycnotics. 



PYDNA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Macedonia, 

 in Pieria, on the coait of the Thermiean gulf, fome miles 

 N. of the river Ahacmon. It was near this town that the 

 Romans gained over Perfeus the battle which terminated the 

 kingdom of Macedon. Steph. Byz. calls it Cydna. — Alfo, 

 a town of the Rhodians. — Alfo, a mountain of the ifland 

 of Crete. — Alfo, a town of Afia, in Phrygia, in the vicinity 

 of mount Ida. 



PYE, in Englifli y^«/;yu;/y. See PiCA. 



Pyk, in Mechanics. See CuAB. 



Pyk, in Ornithology. See PiciE. 



PvE, Sea. See Pica Marina. 



Pye's IJlancls, in Geography, a duller of fmall iflands in 

 the North Pacific ocean, near the W. coaft of North Ame- 

 rica. The iouthernmoll forms, in various appearances of it, 

 a very confpicuous peak ; its S. extremity is fituated in N. 

 lat. 59° 19'. E. long. 210° 21'. 



PYGAIA, in the Materia Medica, a name by which 

 fome authors have called the ipecacuanha, or vomiting In- 

 dian root. 



PYGARGA, in Zoology, a fpecies of Antelope ; which 

 lee. 



PYGARGITES, in Natural Hiftory, a name given by 

 Pliny and fome other of the old writers to the eagle-flone, 

 when it was variegated with white, in the manner of the tail 

 of the eagle, called pygargus. 



PYGARGUS, in Ornithology, a Ipecie: of eagle, called 

 alfo by lome authors albicilLi, and hirundinaria. Linnxus 

 has clailed this bird among the vultures, calling it the vulttir 

 alhicilla, becaufe its bill is rather ilraighter than is ufual in 

 the eagle ; but Mr. Pennant obferves, that it can have no 

 claim to be ranked with that genus, becaufe the pygargus 

 is wholly feathered ; whereas tlie charafterillic mark of the 

 vulture is, that the head and neck are either quite bare, or 

 only covered with down. 



It is a large and fierce bird, of the fize of the commen 

 turkey ; its beak is yellow, and covered with a yellow mem- 

 brane at its bafe ; it has large hazel-coloured eyes ; its feet 

 are yellow, and its claws extremely llrong and fharp ; the 

 head is white, and there are no feathers, but fome fine hairs 

 between the eyes and noftrils ; the upper part of the neck 

 is of a reddilh-brown, and the rump black ; .all the body 

 befides this is of an obfcure rull colour, and its wings are 

 partly black, partly grey ; its tail is long, and the upper 

 half of it is white, and the relt black. It is from this white 

 part that it has its namie alhicilla. The male is of a darker 

 colour than the female. This bird inhabits Scotland and 

 the Orkneys, and feeds on filh as well as on land animals. 



Authors who have written on this kibjedl feem not at all 

 agrcf d to call the fame bird by this name. The pygargus- 

 ot Aldrovand feems different from this, and the pygargui 

 prior of Bellonius feems no other than the male of that kind 

 of l:awk, called in Englilb the hcn-harritr. 



Mr. Wilui^'liby imagines his firil pygargus, p. 61, to be 

 only a variety of the white-tailed eagle, having the fame 



charac- 



