925 



GTfje Crca£ur» at 35a tang. 



[PBEM 



herbaceous plant, a native of Chili, with , where grass-pasture exists. It was first 

 stalked and wedge-shaped radical leaves ; | discovered by Mr. Moorcroft during his 



the flowers in dense umbels, surrounded by 

 large bracts. The genus was named after 

 Pozo, a Spanish botanist. [G. D.] 



PR ECOCITAS. A constitutional condi- 



travels in Tibet, and was spoken of by him 

 as being extensively employed as winter 

 fodder for sheep, goats, and frequently for 

 neat-cattle, producing fatness in a very 

 short space of time, and proving very de- 



tion in peculiar individuals or varieties of I structi veto the liver-fluke so fatal to sheep, 



plants, in consequence of which the 

 rural time of flowering or fruiting is anti- 

 cipated, as in the Glastonbury Thorn. Such 

 varieties are often extremely valuable to 

 gardeners. Most trees when raised from 

 seed are many years before they yield per- 

 fect seed, though they may produce flowers 

 at an early period. The Scotch Fir and 

 Larch, for instance, bear fruit about the 

 sixteenth year, the Spruce about the for- 

 tieth, the Silver Fir and the Beech scarcely 

 before the fiftieth. We do not know what 

 the usual age of seeding is in the Welling- 

 tonia,hut we have seen two three-year-old 

 seedlings out of a great quantity with a 

 single cone on each. [M, J. B.] 



PRJECOX. Appearing early in the year, 

 or earlier than others related to it. 



PREFLORATION. The arrangement of 

 the parts of the flower when unexpanded. 

 See Estivation. 



PR2EFOL1ATION. The arrangement of 

 leaves in a leaf -bud. 



PR.EMORSE. The same as Truncate, 

 except that the termination is ragged and 

 irregular, as if bitten off. 



PR2EUSTUS. Looking as if burnt, owing 

 to the formation of a brown matter in the 

 interior. 



PRANGOS. The greater number of 

 species forming this genus of umbellifers 

 are found in Persia and Asia Minor, and 

 extend from thence into Northern India, 

 Africa, and Southern Europe. They are 

 perennial herbs, with round tapering 

 stems, and much-divided compound leaves, 

 having very narrow segments ; and they 

 bear numerous umbels of yellowish flowers, 

 which have a flve-toothed calyx, entire 

 egg-shaped petals rolled inwards at the 

 point, and the style-bearing disk depressed. 

 The fruits are scarcely at all flattened, 

 being nearly of a taper form ; the face by 

 which the half-fruits cohere is broad, the 

 half-fruits themselves each havinsr five 

 longitudinal ridges at the back, which are 

 thick at the base but decrease to a thin 

 wing ; and the seeds are covered with nu- 

 merous oil-cells. 



The Hay-plant of Tibet, or the Prangos 

 Hay-plant, P. pabularia, was some twenty 

 or more years ago greatly lauded as a 

 forage plant, and various attempts were 

 made to introduce it among the agricul- 

 tural plants of this country, but without 

 success. Its high reputation appears to 

 have been undeserved ; for although ex- 

 tremely valuable in the cold and arid re- 

 gions of Tibet, where it is indigenous and 

 where forage of a better quality is not ob- 

 tainable, it is not so much esteemed in 

 Kashmir and other more fertile countries, 



The late Dr. Royle was of the opinion that 

 this plant was probably the kind of Stir 

 pMum mentioned by Arrian in his account 

 of the wars of Alexander: 'In this part 

 of the Caucasus' (the modern Hindi io 

 Kush) ' nothing grows except pines and 

 silphium ; but the country was populous, 

 and fed many sheep and cattle, for the sheep 

 are very fond of the silphium. If a sheep 

 should perceive the silphium from a dis- 

 tance, it runs to it and feeds on the flower, 

 and digs up the root and eats that also.' 

 The other kinds of Silphium mentioned by 

 Greek writers have been referred to plants 

 of the same natural order. [A. SJ 



PRASINUS. Grass-green. 



PRASIOLA. A rather pretty genus of 

 Ulvacece, comprising the species which grow 

 on rocks or on the naked soil, whether im- 

 pregnated more or less with salt, or quite 

 saltiess. They form exquisite objects under 

 the microscope, from the symmetry of the 

 cells of which the frond is composed, 

 these being disposed in fours or multiples 

 of four. Some of them when young are very 

 narrow, and, like the cognate Porphyrce, 

 look like Bangice. They are all natives of 

 cold regions. P. crispa, which is not un- 

 common in Europe, occurs in Cockburn 

 Island in lat. 60° S. [M. J. B.] 



PRASIPM. A genus of Labiatce, having 

 the calyx bell-shaped, with the border two- 

 lipped ; the upper lip short, three-cleft, the 

 lower deeply two-cleft, and all ovate and 

 leaf-like ; and corolla with a short tube, its 

 upper lip ovate and entire, and the lower 

 three-cleft, the middle piece largest and 

 entire, P. majus, the only species, is an 

 evergreen shrub, native of Europe and 

 Northern Africa. The name is adopted 

 from the Prasion of Dioscorides, a plant 

 like horehound or marjoram. [G. D.] 



PRATENSIS. Growing in meadows. 



PRATIA. A small genus of Lobeliacece, 

 natives of the southern parts of South 

 America, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, 

 and India. They form little creeping her- 

 baceous plants, growing usually in marshy 

 places ; and having prostrate stems, small 

 rounded or oblong sinuate or toothed 

 leaves, and axillary single-flowered pedun- 

 cles. It is distinguished from Lobelia by its 

 fleshy indehiscent fruits. [A. S.] 



PRATLING PARNELL. Saxifraga um- 

 brosa. 



PRATER-BEADS. The seeds of Abrus 

 precatorius. 



PRELE. (Fr.) Equisetum. — DES TOUR- 

 NEURS. Equisetum hyemale. 



PREMNA. A large genus of Verbena 



