899 



€§t €rca£itrg of SSotang. 



[PLAG 



PITTED. Having numerous small shal- 

 low depressions or excavations. 



PITTOMBA. Sapindus esculentus. 



PITTOSPORACEJE. (Pittosporads.) A 

 natural order of thalamifloral dicotyle- 

 dons belonging to Lindley's berberal al- 

 liance of hypogynous Exogens. They are 

 trees or shrubs, with simple alternate ex- 

 stipulate leaves, and regular symmetrical 

 occasionally polygamous flowers, found 

 chiefly in Australasia. Many of them are 

 resinous, and in some instances the ber- 

 ries are eaten. Sepals and petals four or 

 five, imbricated; stamens five, alternate 

 with the petals; ovary two to five-celled, 

 with axile and parietal placentae. Fruit 

 capsular or berried, with many-seeded cells, 

 which are sometimes incomplete ; seeds 

 often enveloped in a glutinous or resinous 

 pulp. Pittozporum, Billardiera, and So'dya 

 are some of the genera, of which there are 

 about a dozen, including some eighty or 

 more species. [J. H.B.] 



PITTOSPORUM. A genus of Pitto- 

 sporacece, having a calyx of five sepals ; a 

 corolla of five petals, the claws of which 

 are united into a tube ; five stamens alter- 



PLACENTA-SHAPED. Thick, round, 

 and concave on both the upper and lower 

 surface ; as the root of Cyclamen. 



PLACENTATION. The manner in which 

 the placenta is constructed or placed. 



. A small genus of Ster- I 

 to South Australia, Tas- 



PLAGIANTHTJS. 

 culiacece, confined 



mania, and New Zealand. One species 

 tall tree, and the others large shrubs, with 

 very tough bark, and more or less covered 

 with star-like down. Their leaves are alter- 

 nate or in clusters, and very variable in 

 shape ; and their small whitish flowers are 

 borne in little racemes or clusters in the 

 axils of the leaves, and are usually uni- 

 sexual with the two sexes sometimes on 

 separate plants, but occasionally perfect. 

 The fruit consists of from one to five one- 

 celled cocci, which ultimately burst irre- 

 gularly and separate from the central 

 column. 



P. betulinus, also sometimes called P. ur- 

 ucinus, when full-grown forms a tree seven- 

 ty feet high, but it is more frequently a 

 straggling bush of no great height. The 

 inner barn of the young branches yields 

 a very fine tough fibre, sometimes called 

 natmg with the petals; a single style | New Zealand Cotton, though more like flax 

 crowned with numerous stigmas ; and a j than cotton : it is the Akaroa of the New 

 smooth or hairy five-valved one-celled j Zealanders. P. sidioides is one of several 

 capsule, the seeds covered with a resinous j plants with fibrous hark, which in Tasma- 

 pulp. They form large shrubs or small | nia and New South Wales bear the native 



J name Kurrajong or Currajong. The pre- 



trees, with entire permanent leaves, and 

 white or yellowish flowers with a spread- 

 ing limb, disposed in terminal cymes or 

 racemes. The larger number of species are 

 natives of Australia, but some occur in 

 Madeira, the Canaries, Cape of Good Hope, 

 Japan, &c. [R. H.] 



PITU1TAIRE. (Fr.) Delphinium Slaphis- 

 agria. 



sent, a shrub ten or twelve feet high, yields 

 a tough fibre, of which good cordage and 

 twine for fishing-nets are made. [A. SJ 



PLAGIOCHILA. A charming genus of 

 Jungermanniacem, characterised by the 

 free terminal herbaceous perianth, which 

 is generally exserted but sometimes con- 

 cealed by the involucre, though in that 

 ? case distinct. The leaves, moreover, have 

 Z5Z'°- Te 'jTrdins T o?P their anterior margin concealed by the 

 Pteonia Moutan. - DLb JARDLNb, ort\ poste riormarainof the next in succession. 

 FEMELLE. Pceonia officinalis. — MALE. , j n piagiochila the perianth is two-lipped 

 Pcecmia corallina. \ and laterally compressed. The species be- 



PIWARRIE. An intoxicating beverage | SL^aTe^lS^^SmS 



PIXIDELLE. (Fr.) Lmdernia. 

 PIXIE-STOOLS. Chanterellus cibarius. 

 PIZITJBA. Iriartea exorrhiza. 

 PLACEA ornata. A pretty little Chilian 



nice ever become objects of cultivation, 

 the species of Plagiochiloz must be in the 

 first class. Some of them are very large and 

 elegant, as, for example, the New Zealand 

 P. Stephensoniana, which attains a length 

 of eight or nine inches, and is as beautiful 

 n structure as the most delicate Hymeno- 

 [M. J. B.] 



amarylhdaceous plant, forming a genus 



allied to Ev.crosia, and having a petaloid j '^Ziium 



perianth of six equal reflexed spreading . 



divisions, the two lower of which are wide- PLAGIOCHILUS. A genus of Compo- 



ly separated; a coronet of six notched | siice of the tribe Anthemidece, consisting 



narrow pieces-cohering into a tube at the of low herbs from the Andes of South 



bottom ; three long and three short decli- i America, mostly with the prostrate stems, 



nate stamens ; and a curved style and much-cut leaves, and small flower-heads 



i truncate stigma. It has a small bulb, from 

 ! which rise a pair of narrow leaves ; and a 

 ' flower-stem a span or so high, bearing 

 | about six flowers, which are snow-white 

 outside and striped with brilliant vermilion 

 lines inside. [A. S.] 



PLACENTA. The place or part on which 

 ovules originate. 



of Soliva, but remarkable for the external 

 florets of each head being deeply and un- 

 equally three-lobed. There are several spe- 

 cies, insignificant weedy-looking plants of 

 no special interest. 



PLAGIOLOBIUM. A name given by 

 Sweet to Eovea chorozemcefolia and its va- 

 riety ilicifolia, which have broader leaves 



