PAP 
PAPPES'CENT, urfj. [from the Lat. pappus, down.] 
Growing downy, growing pappous. 
PAP'PING, a town of Aufiria : one mile north of Ef- 
ferdiivg. 
PAP'PON (John-Peter), an eftimable man of letters, 
was born in 1736 at Pujef near Nice. He entered young 
into the congregation of the Oratory, where he diftin- 
guifhed himfelfby his writings. He paiTed a life in tran- 
cuillity, exempt from ambition and intrigue; and his 
Ipirits were fcarcely affeCted by the lofs of a penfion from 
the dates of Provence, which conflituted his chief fup- 
port. at the commencement of the revolution. During 
the reign of terror he took refuge in the department of 
Puy-de-Dome, whence he afterwards returned to Paris. 
He died fuddenly in 1801, at the age of fixty-five. Of 
his works the principal are, 1. An Ode on Death, inferted 
in the collection of the Floral Games of Touloufe. z. 
L’Art du Poete et de l’Orateur, izmo. feveral times re- 
printed. 3. Voyage de Provence, z vols. nrao. 1787. a 
very agreeable performance, full of hiftorical anecdotes. 
4. Hilloire de Provence, 4 vols. 4to. To this work many 
documents are annexed from the ancient hiftorians of 
Provence. For the purpofe of difcovering new autho¬ 
rities, the author took a journey to Naples, the throne of 
which was long, occupied by the counts of Provence. 
Among the pieces which he procured was the omittance 
given by queen Joan to pope Clement VI. for the price 
of the city of Avignon, which fne fold him. This is 
iuppofed to afford a refutation of the aflertion that the 
city was the price of the pope’s abfolution of Joan from 
the murder of her firft: hufband ; but in faCt it proves no 
more than that an oftenfible bargain and fale palled be¬ 
tween them. 5. Pappon alfo wrote fome nieces relative 
to the French revolution; and, 6. Epoques memorables 
de la Pefte, z vols. 8vo. 1800. 
PAPPOPH'ORUM, J'. [a genus firft eftablifhed by 
Schreber, and named by him from the Gr. %a.Trzro^, thif- 
tle-down, and (ptyu, to bear; in allufion to the peculiar 
refemblance of [he fine aggregate awns of this grafs to 
the feed-down of many fyngenefious plants.] In botany, 
a genus of the clafs triandria, order digynia, natural or¬ 
der of gramina, or grades. Generic characters—Calyx : 
glume two-flowered, two-valved ; valves long, linear, 
fomewhat comprefled, very thin, acuminate, awnlefs : 
outer a little fliorter; one floret inferior, larger, feilile, 
bearded at the bale, hermaphrodite : the other fuperior, 
lefs, on a fhort pedicel, prefled clofe to the back of the 
lower one, beardiefs, neuter; and above this the rudiment 
of a third. Corolla : glume two-valved, fhorter than the 
calyx : outer valve ovate, ventricofe, angular, terminated 
by feveral awns (thirteen or fourteen), very long, ftraight, 
unequal, fpreading, with its edges embracing the inner 
valve, which is lanceolate, acute, a little longer and nar¬ 
rower than the outer. NeCtary two-leaved, very final!,, 
with linear leaflets. Stamina: filaments three, capillary. 
Antherse oblong. Piftillum : germen ovate ; ftyles two, 
flaort; ftigmas villofe. Pericarpium : none. Corolla in- 
clofes the feedj and lets it drop. Seed one, ovate, com- 
pfelled, diaphanous.— Ejfeutial Character. Calyx two- 
valved, two-flowered; corolla two-valved, many-awned. 
There are five fpecies. 
1. Pappophorum alopecuroideum : awns thirteen, mi¬ 
nutely toothed. Stem branched, three or four feet high, 
fmooth, fheathed with leaves, which are convoluted, awl- 
fliaped, ftriated, fliorter than the culm ; the laff fpatlia- 
ceous. Panicle ereCt, fubfpiked, often a foot and a half 
long, refembling Alopecurus monfpeliacus. Calyx three 
or four-flowered. Found by Von Rohr at Spanifh Town 
in South America. Va/il, iii. 10. t. 51. 
z. Pappophorum nigricans: awns nine, feathery ; fpike 
compound, fomewhat cylindrical, with imbricated lobes; 
glumes very finely downy ; leaves and (heaths naked, 
roughifh. Gathered by Mr. Brown, in the tropical as 
well as fouthern parts of New Holland, and at Port 
Jackfon. 
PAP 
3. Pappophorum pallidum: awns nine, feathery; 
fpike compound, fomewhat cylindrical, with imbricated 
lobes ; glumes and leaves villous. Native of the tropi¬ 
cal part of New Holland, as well as the two following ; 
Mr. Brown having gathered them all in that country. 
4. Pappophorum purpurafcens: awns nine, feathery, 
coloured ; fpike lanceolate, Iobed ; its branches alternate, 
racemofe; glumes and leaves downy. 
5. Pappophorum gracile : awns nine, feathery; fpike 
divided in the lower part, Ample above ; glumes downy ; 
leaves involute, fmooth, as well as the Hems. Brown, 
Prodr. Nov. Boll. i. 184. 
PAPPO'SF., or Pap'pous, adj. [ pappofus , low Lat. or 
from the Gr. 7r«?r7ro;, thiftle-down.] Having that foft 
light down, growing out of the feeds of fome plants; 
fuch as thirties, dandelion, hawk-weeds, which buoys 
them up fo in the air, that they can be blown any-vvhere 
about with the wind : and, therefore, this dirtinguifhes 
one kind of plants, which is called pappofa, or pappoji 
jlores. Quincy. —Another thing argumentative of provi¬ 
dence is, that pappous plumage growing upon the tops of 
fome feeds, whereby they are wafted with the wind, and 
by that means diffeminated far and wide. Ray on the Crea¬ 
tion. —Dandelion, and moft of ihepappous kind, have Ions' 
numerous feathers, by which they are wafted every way. 
Derham. 
PAP'PUS,/. in botany, feed-down : the hairy or fea¬ 
thery, fometiines chaffy, radiating crown of the feed, in 
the natural order of compound flowers, or fyngenefious 
clafs, fuch being the true claffical acceptation of this 
Latin word, as well as of the Greek from whence 
it comes. The ufe of this part is to waft the feed to a 
diftance, in dry and windy weather, when the pappus is 
moft light and expanded ; by which means fuch plants are 
widely difperfed. Finally it either flips off, by the dry¬ 
ing and contraction of the fummit of the feed, as in thir¬ 
ties ; or the feed having fixed itfelf in the earth, the down 
is broken off by the wind, or fome other accidental caufe ; 
in either cafe the feed is left behind, to germinate without 
further difturbance. The down, having fulfilled its pri¬ 
mary deftination, often ferves a fecondary purpofe in the 
economy of nature; being hoarded up by birds, and the 
fmaller quadrupeds, to compofe or to line their nefts, or 
winter retreats. Its texture is not fuch as to render it fit 
for being woven, by human art, for any ufe. 
Gsertnerproperly refcrains the term pappus to compound 
flowers ; though Linnaeus and others ufe it indifcrimi- 
nately for fuch, and for the hairy appendages to the top, 
fides, or bafe, of otherfeeds, even when they are inclofed 
in a capfule; witnefs Epilobium, Afclepias, and many 
others. Gaertner ufes the word coma, when fuch an ap¬ 
pendage is fituated at the top of the feed ; and pubes w hen 
it originates from the bafe or fides, as in Goffypium, the 
cotton-plant. 
PAP'PUS, a very eminent Greek mathematician of 
Alexandria in the fourth century, is faid by Suidas to 
have flourifhed in the reign of Theodoflus the Great, who 
prefided over the empire from the year 379 to 395. Such 
of his works as are ftill extant, fhow him to have been 
profoundly (killed in the mathematical fciences. Suidas 
and Voflius mention feveral of his productions which are 
loft, or at leaft have not yet been difcovered; among 
which are, 1. A Commentary upon Ptolemy’s Almageft. 
z. An univerfal Chorograpiiy. 3. A Defcription of the 
Rivers of Lybia. 4. A treatife on Military Engines, 
5. Commentaries upon Ariftarchus of Samos, concerning 
the Magnitude and Diftance of the Sun and Moon, &c. 
6. He is quoted by Marinus, adifciple of Proclus, in his 
preliminary obfervations on the Data of Euclid, who re¬ 
fers to his Mathematical Collections, in eight books, 
which are yet extant, in the original Greek, excepting 
the firft and part of the fecond book, among the rare ma- 
nufcripts in the Bodleian library at Oxford, and in other 
collections. Of this work, the third, fourth, fifth, fixtli, 
feventh, and eighth, books, were tranflated into Latin, 
b y 
