933 



CIjc Crca^ttrj? of SSatang. 



[PSEU 



varieties appear to have been introduced 

 from France centuries ago. The Orleans 

 Plum is supposed to have been brought over 

 when the English held possession of that 

 French city temp. Henry V. There are now 

 more than 300 sorts, and their number is 

 still increasing. 



A few of the finest for dessert are the 

 Green Gage, Purple Gage or Reine Claude 

 Violette, Jefferson, Kirke's, Royal Hative, 

 Washington, and Coe's Golden Drop. Many 

 others, however, possess great excellence. 

 Some are employed for making preserves, 

 and others dried form the Prunes of the 

 shops. The Prunes which come from Brig- 

 noles, in the south of France, are prepared 

 from a variety called the Perdrigon. The 

 neighbourhood of Tours is celebrated for 

 the quantity of Prunes which it furnishes. 

 The German Prunes are prepared from an 

 oblong purple variety called Zwetsche, or 

 Quetsche, a Slavonian name originally, 

 which is spelled variously on the Continent. 

 Damsons are plums well-known and much 

 used in this country for preserves, and 

 so are the small round nearly wild sorts 

 called Bullaces. 



P. myrobolana, which is named Cherry 

 Plum, probably from its colour, is a species 

 from Canada. It flowers very early, and 

 hears a medium-sized heart-shaped fruit, 

 in great abundance and of tolerably good 

 quality, hut not equal to the European 

 varieties. [R. TJ 



PRTJRIENS. Causing an itching sensa 

 tion. 



P3ALLIOTA. A subgenus of Agaricus, 

 helonging to the series with purple-black 

 spores, amongst which it is distinguished 

 by the presence of a ring, which adheres to 

 the stem. It contains many of our best 

 esculent Fungi, especially Agaricus cam- 

 pestris and the allied mushrooms. Though 

 capable of enduring cold, some of the spe- 

 cies flourish where the temperature is 

 higrh, provided there is sufficient moisture 

 indie air. [M. J. B.] 



PSAMMA. A genus of grasses helong- 

 ing to the tribe Arundinece, described by 

 Steudel under Calamagrostis, and by other 

 authors under Ammophila. It is the well- 

 known Bent-grass of the sandhills near 

 the sea-shores of Britain. [D. M.j 



PSAMMISIA. The species of this genus 

 of Yacciniacece are American shrubs with 

 large leathery ribbed leaves, and axillary 

 inflorescence in the form of stout corymb- 

 like racemes, the pedicels of which are 

 thickened in the upper part, jointed, and 

 provided with a small scale-like bract. 

 The limb of the calyx is leathery and cup- 

 shaped : the corolla tubular ; and the upper 

 part of the anthers attached at the back to 

 the filaments. P. Hookeriana is in cultiva- 

 tion under the name of Thibaudia pichin- 

 chensis. Most authors consider the species 

 of the present genus to form part of the 

 genus Thibaudia. The name is derived 

 from Psammis, King of Egypt ! [M. T. MJ 



PSEUDAXTHTJS. A name which has 



been applied both to a genus of Amaran- 

 thacea, and to one of Euphorbiacece. 



PSEUDATHYRIUM. A name proposed 

 for Polypodium alpesire on account of its 

 close resemblance to the Athyrium or Lady 

 Fern. [T. M.] 



PSEUDEPIDENDRTJM spectabile. A Cen- 

 tral American orchid, erected into a genus 

 by Reichenbach, but afterwards abandoned 

 and now called Epidendrum pseudepiden- 

 drum by the same author. The genus was 

 characterised by having two-edged some- 

 what falcate pollen-masses, the two outer 

 much larger than the two inner, with a 

 deeply three-toothed caudicle turned back 

 upon them. It is a tall erect-stemmed plant, 

 with sheathed leaves, and apanicle bearing 

 a very few large green flowers with a scar- 

 let lip. [A. S.] 



PSEUDERIOPSIS. One of the many 

 genera of orchids proposed and afterwards 

 abandoned by Reichenbach. The sole spe- 

 cies referred to it is a British Guiana plant, 

 which is now said to be identical with 

 Eriopsis biloba of Lindley. [A. S.] 



PSEUDIOSMA. The name applied to a 

 small tree, native of Cochin China, and 

 forming a genus of Xantlwxylacew. The 

 leaves are alternate, entire ; the flowers 

 yellow, in terminal panicles. Sepals five, 

 spreading; petals five, larger than the 

 sepals; anthers five, sessile; ovary five- 

 lobed, girt by a thick disk ; style as long as 

 the anthers ; stigma simple; follicles five, 

 stalked, one-seeded. [M. T. M.] 



PSEUDO. In Greek compounds = spu- 

 rious. 



PSEUDOBULB. A stem having the ap- 

 pearance of a bulb, but not its structure, 

 seen in the thickened above-ground stem of 

 many orchids. 



PSEUDOCENTRUM macrostachyum. A 

 Peruvian terrestrial orchid, forming a 

 genus allied to Pelexia in Neotteai ; hut 

 nothing is at present known of it except 

 the flowers, which are borne in a dense 

 cylindrical spike, and have the front sepal 

 small lanceolate and spreading, and the 

 two lateral ones large triangular and ex- 

 cessively produced at their base, forming 

 a long curved sheath, within which lies the 

 sessile hastate three-lobed lip, the middle 

 lobe of which is as long as the sheath, 

 narrow and channelled. [A. S.] 



PSETJDOCOSTATE. Having the cur- 

 ved and external veins, both or either, in a 

 reticulated leaf, confluent into a line paral- 

 lel with the margin, as in many Myrtacece. 



PSETJDOCOTYLEDONEiE. A name ap- 

 plied to some of the higher cryptogams, 

 from a notion that there is some analogy 

 between the results of germination and 

 cotyledons. It is essential to cotyledons 

 that they should exist in the embryo ready 

 formed. False cotyledons must be after- 

 growths on the axis, and it is clear that the 

 organs in question are of such a different 



