fruit, having each five equal thread-like 

 ribs with single vittse between them. All 

 the species have the stem-leaves more or 

 less minutely cut into numerous hair-like 

 segments. 



P. Ajoican is a small plant.with erect fork- 

 ing stems, and very few leaves, the lower 

 of which are cut into numerous narrow 

 segments and the upper are simply pin- 

 nate ; and produces umbels composed of 

 from seven to nine rays surrounded by an 

 involucre of narrow entire leaflets. It is 

 very much cultivated during the cold sea- 

 son in Bengal, where it is called Ajowan 

 or Ajouan, or Javanee, and valued for 

 its aromatic fruits, which are commonly 

 used for culinary and medicinal purposes. 

 They are very small, somewhat like cara- 

 ways, rough on the surface and strongly 

 ribbed, and remarkable for their strong 

 odour of thyme. [A.S.] 



PUBERA (^Etas). The period in the dura- 

 tion of a fruit succeeding to the fertilisa- 

 tion of the ovules. 



PUBLIC-HOUSE PLANT. Asarumeuro- 

 pcmm. 



PUCCENTA. An important genus of co- 

 niomycetor.s Fungi, and the type of the 

 natural order Puccinicei. It is distinguished 

 by the uniseptate stipitate protospores, 

 which are not bound together by gelatine. 

 The species are all parasitic, growing on 

 the different parts of phasnogams, and in 

 a few rare instances on cryptogams. The 

 mycelia creep amongst and penetrate 

 the cells of the mother-plants, exhaust- 

 ing their juices and appropriating them 

 to the nourishment of the large proto- 

 spores. The species are therefore more 

 or less destructive to the mother-plant, 

 unless where they tend to repress over- 

 luxuriance. P. graminis, which occurs in 

 almost every part of the world on grasses, 

 and especially on cereals, is the common 

 wheat mildew, one of the most formidable 

 diseases of wheat, and one for which no 

 remedy has as yet been found. Were it 

 even possible to devise any plan which 

 might destroy every particle of wheat 

 mildew, there would still be a fresh supply 

 in the fields from the wild grasses. Most 

 species of Puccinia, besides the proper 

 protospores, produce others which are 

 unicellular, and which are generally as- 

 signed to Uredo or its allied genera. These, 

 it is to be observed, are distinct from the 

 young protospores before the septum is 

 formed. Occasionally two distinct species 

 exist together on the same plant. [M.J. B.] 



PUCCIXLZEI. A natural order of conio- 

 mycetous Fungi, formerly restricted to 

 those parasitic species which have septate 

 protospores, but now extended to those 

 which consist of a single cell, provided 

 there be no true peridium, as in JEcidium. 

 In Xenodochus and Aregma the septa are 

 numerous ; in l*ripJiragmmm there is occa- 

 sionally a vertical septum ; in the sections 

 Uredinei and Ustilaginei they are mostly 

 unicellular; and in the latter the mother- 

 threads vanish at a very early stage of 



growth. In Cystopus they are chained 

 together, and are of two kinds, a circum- 

 stance which occurs also in the rose rust 

 referred to the genus Coleosporium. In all, 

 the protospores germinate either from 

 some indifferent point by the protrusion 

 of the inner membrane, or from definite 

 points like many pollen-grains. Some of 

 the species, as mildew and smut, are cos- 

 mopolites, but one or two genera have at 

 present occurred only in tropical or sub- 

 tropical countries. Podisoma and Gymno- 

 sporangium differ merely in their abundant 

 gelatine. [M. J. B.] 



PUCCOON. The Blood-root, Sanguinaria 

 canadensis. — , HAIRY. Lithospermum 

 hirtum. — , HOART. Lithospermum 

 canescens. — , YELLOW. Hydrastis cana- 

 densis. 



PUCELAGE. (Pr.) Vinca. 



PUCELLE. (Fr.) Galanthus nivalis. 



PUCHA-PAT. The Patchouli, Pogostemon 

 Patchouly, used in India as an ingredient 

 in tobacco for smoking, and for scenting 

 the hair, clothes, &c. 



PUCHIRIM. A South American name 

 for Sassafras. 



PUCIERE. (Fr.) Plantago Psyllium. 



PUCKFIST, PUCKBALL, or BALL- 

 FIST. Evidently a corruption of the Ger- 

 man word Bofist, applied generally to the 

 larger puffballs. According to Withering, 

 they are sometimes called Bunt. [M. J. BJ 



PUDDING-PIPE TREE. Cassia Fistula. 



PUDIS. (Fr.) Pistacia Terebinthus. 



PUERARIA. A tall woody twiner from 

 the Himalayas, described as constituting 

 a genus of Leguminosce of the suborder 

 Papilionacece, having the foliage and 

 flowers of Phaseolece, with the jointed pod 

 of Hedysarece. This point has not, however, 

 as yet been satisfactorily ascertained, and 

 it is possible that the genus may be the 

 same as the more recently established 

 Neustanthus. 



PUETTE. (Fr.) Lepidium ruderale. 



PUFFBALL. Lycoperdon. 



PUINE. (Fr.) Cornus sanguinea. 



PULAS. An Indian name for Butea 

 frondosa and B. superba. 



PULICAIRE. (Fr.) Pulicaria vulgaris. 



PULICARJA. A genus of herbaceous 

 plants, belonging to the tribe Corymbiferce 

 of compound flowers. The flowers are 

 conspicuously rayed, all yellow; the florets 

 of the ray forming a single row, and desti- 

 tute of a pappus ; and those of the disk 

 furnished with a hairy pappus, which is 

 surrounded by a cup-like membrane. P. 

 dysenterica, the Common Fleabane, re- 

 ceived its name from the supposed virtue 

 of its smoke when burnt in driving away 

 fleas. It is a common plant in marshes 

 and by the sides of rivers in England, 

 where it is conspicuous in autumn by its 



