PAL 
colour. The alkalies act likewise on palla- 
dium even in the metallic state : the action 
is promoted by the contact of the atmos- 
pheric air. Air the metals, except gold, 
silver, and platina, precipitate palladium 
from its solution in tlie metallic state. Pal- 
ladium combines readily with sulphur, but 
not with charcoal. It may he alloyed with 
a number of the metals. A full account of 
the discovery of palladium with the contro- 
versy to which it gave rise will be found in 
the Philosophical Transactions for the years 
1802, 1803, 1804, 1805. 
PALLASIA, in botany, so named in ho- 
nour of Peter Simon Pallas, M. D. a genus 
of the Syngenesia Polygamia Frustranea 
class and order. Natural order of Compo- 
site Oppositifolise. Corymbifer®, Jussieu. 
Essential character; receptacle chaffy; 
down none ; seeds vertical, flat, margin 
ciliated; calyx imbricate. There is but 
one species ; viz. P. halimifolia, a native of 
Eima in Peru. 
PALLET, among painters, a little oval 
table, or piece of wood, or ivory, very thin 
and smooth ; on, and round which, the 
painters place the several colours they have 
occasion for, to be ready for the pencil. 
Tlie middle serves to mix the colours on, 
and to make tlie tints required in the work. 
It has no handle, but instead thereof a hole 
at one end to put the thumb through to 
hold it. 
Pallet, among potters, crucible makers, 
&c. a wooden instrument, almost the only 
one they use, for forming, heating, and 
rounding their works: they have several 
kinds ; the largest are oval with a handle ; 
others are round, or hollowed triangularly ; 
others, in fine, are in manner oflarge knives, 
serving to cut off whatever is superfluous 
on the moulds of their work. 
Pallet, in gilding, an instrument made 
of a squirrel’s tail, to take up the gold leaves 
from the pillow, and to apply and extend 
them on the matter to be gilt. See Gild- 
ing. 
Pallet, in heraldry, is nothing but a 
small pale, consisting of one half of it in 
breadth, and therefore there are sometimes 
several of them upon one shield. 
Pallet is also a part belonging to the 
balance of a watch or movement. See 
Watch. 
Pallet, in ship-building, is a room within 
the hold, closely parted from it, in which 
by laying some pigs of lead, &c. a ship may 
be sufliciently ballasted, without losing 
PAL 
room in the hold; which, therefore, will 
serve for the stowing the more goods. 
PALLIUM, or Paj-l, an archiepiscopal 
vestment of white woollen cloth, about the 
breadtli of a border, made round, and 
thrown over the shoulders. Upon this bor- 
der there are two others of the same matter 
and form, one of which falls down upon the 
breast, and the other upon the back, each 
having a red cross upon it ; several crosses 
of the same colour being likewise upon the 
upper part of it about the shoulders. The 
pall was part of the imperial habit, and ori- 
ginally granted by the emperors to patri- 
archs ; but at present it is given by the 
Pope as a mark of the apostolic powei', 
without which neither the function nor title 
of archbishop can be assumed by the bishops 
of his communion. 
PALM, an ancient measure, taken from 
the extent of the hand. The Roman palm 
was of two kinds ; the great one was equal 
to about 8| inches English : the small one 
to about three inches. The modern palm 
differs in different countries ; 
In Lines. 
At Rome it is 8 
At Genoa 9 9 
In France the same 
The English palm 3 0 
PALMAH, in botany, palms. Under this 
name Linnsus has arranged several genera, 
which he has placed apart in an appendix to 
the work. The same plants constitute one of 
the seven families or tribes into which all ve- 
getables are distributed by Linnaeus in his 
‘‘ Philosophia Botanica.” They are defined 
to be plants with simple stems, which, at their 
summit, bear leaves resembling those of the 
ferns, being a composition of a leaf and a 
branch ; and whose flowers and fruit are 
produced on that particular receptacle, or 
seat, called a spadix, protruded from a 
common calyx in form of a sheath or scab- 
bard, termed by Linnaeus “ spatha.” 
PALM.flE, is likewise the name of the first 
order in Linnaeus’s “ Fragments of a Natu- 
ral Method,” consisting of the following 
genera, the three last of which, although 
not ranged with the palms in the appendix 
to his “ Artificial System,” are placed with 
them, on account of their alleged confor- 
mity in point of habit, in his “ Natural 
Method.” The plants of this order are pe- 
rennial, and mostly of the shrub and tree 
kind. The stem is in height from two to a 
hundred feet, and upwards. The roots form 
a mass of fibres, which are commonly sim- 
