448 
PEC 
teguntur.” Although Euftachius had given fome hints 
of the exiftence of a thoracic dud, yet Pecquet deferves 
the credit of having clearly traced the whole courfe of 
the ladeal fyftem to its termination in the fubclavian 
veins. There was fubjoined a valuable “ Diflertatio de 
Circulatione Sanguinis et Chyli Motu in which he de- 
monftrated the courfe of the venous blood even in the 
vena portarum and the pulmonary veins, and made fome 
other important obfervations on the motion of the blood 
and chyle. His work was reprinted at Paris in 1654, 
with the addition of a “ Differtatio nova de Thoracicis 
Ladeis,” in which he refuted the theoretical objedions 
of Riolan by new and decifive experiments. Pecquet alfo 
wrote fome papers on anatomical fubjeds in the Memoirs 
of the Academy of Sciences, (of which fociety he was ad¬ 
mitted a member in 1666,) and in the Journal des Sa- 
vans. He was phyfician to the famous financier Fouquet, 
who ufed to confer with him in his leifure hours on fci- 
entific topics. A theory which this ingenious phyfiolo- 
gift had unfortunately adopted concerning the alimentary 
nature of vinous fpirit, made him not onlyadvife the li¬ 
beral ufe of brandy to others, but indulge in it fo freely 
himfelf, that it fnortened his days; and he died, under the 
age of fifty, in 1674. llalleri Bibl. Anatom. 
PEC'QUET (Anthony), a French writer, was born in 
3704. He attained the rank of grand mailer of the wa¬ 
ter-works and forefts of Rouen, and fuperintendant of the 
military fchool. The works by which he is principally 
known are, 1. An Analyfis of the Spirit of Laws, and the 
Spirit of Political Maxims, 3 vols. 2. The Foreft Laws 
of France, a vols. 3. Thoughts on Man. He alfo tranf- 
lated the Paftor Fido of Guarini, and other Italian works, 
into French. He died in 1762. 
PEC'TEN,/. [Lat. from its longitudinal ftriaelike the 
teeth of a comb.J The Scallop. See the article Ostrea, 
vol.xviii. p. 27, and the accompanying Plate. 
PEC'TEN VEN'ERIS, in botany. See Scandix. 
PEC'TINAL, aclj. [peReti, Lat. a comb.] Refembling 
a comb, or the teeth of a comb. 
PEC'TINAL, f .—There are fiflies vvhofe eyes regard 
the heavens, as plain and cartilaginous fifties, as peRinals, 
or fuch as have their bones made laterally like a comb. 
Brown. 
PEC'TINATED, adj. Standing from each other like 
the teeth of a comb.—To lit crofs-legg’d or with our 
fingers peRinuted, is accounted bad. Brown's Vu/g. Err. 
PECTINA'TION, J. The ftate of being pedinated.— 
The complication or peRination of the fingers was an 
hieroglyphic of impediment. Brown's Vulg. Err. —Comb¬ 
ing of the head.—Frequent peRination is recommended 
by many phyficians to women, and men who wear their 
hair, as an exercife; and, at the fame time, a kind of 
fridion. Chambers. 
PEC'FIS, J'. [might be fo called perhaps, by Linnaeus, 
the author of the name, from pcRen, Lat. a comb, as ap¬ 
plicable to the fringed bafes of the leaves.] In botany, a 
genus of the clafs iyngenefia, order polygamia fuperflua; 
natural order of compofitae oppofitifolite, (corymbiferae, 
Ju/f.) Generic charaffers—Calyx: common five-leaved, 
cyiindric : leaflets lanceolate, blunt, almoft equal. Co¬ 
rolla: compound rayed. Corollets hermaphrodite, four 
to fix, in the difk. Females five, fet in the ray. Proper 
of the hermaphrodite funnel-form, five-cleft ; of the fe¬ 
male, ligulate ovate, ftiorter than the calyx. Stamina: 
in the hermaphrodites ; filaments five, ihort. Antherae 
cyiindric tubular. Piftillum : in the hermaphrodites ; 
germen linear; ftyle filiform; ftigma bifid. In the fe¬ 
males ; germen linear; ftyle filiform; ftigmas two, re¬ 
volute. Pericarpium: none. Calyx unchanged, fpread- 
ing. Seeds: in the hermaphrodites, folitary, linear; 
down with two or three fpreading awns. In the females, 
very like the other. Receptacle: naked.— Ejfential Clia- 
rabler. Calyx five-leaved, cyiindric; florets in the ray 
five; down awnedj receptacle naked. There are fix 
fpecies. 
PEC 
_i. Pedis ciliaris: leaves linear ciliate. Root branched, 
with filiform radicles. Stem herbaceous, halfa foot high, 
branched, dichotomous, diffufed, round, fmooth. Branch- 
lets fcattered, diffufed, round, fpreading, red. Leaves 
feffile, half embracing at the bafe, linear, acuminate; 
tooth-ciliate at the bafe, perforated at the edge, membra¬ 
naceous-ferrate when examined with a glafs, nervelefs, 
fmooth. Flowers fmall, yellow. The leaves, when 
bruifed, have a fweet fmell, like favory. Native of Hif- 
paniola : flowering there in June. 
2. Pedis pundata: leaves linear quite entire, dotted 
underneath. Stem herbaceous, a foot high and more, 
angular, branched, fmooth. Native of Hifpaniola, on 
fandy coafts. Jacquin deferibes it as a tender upright 
plant, from two to three feet in height, with fmooth ftri- 
ated dichotomous branches. Leaves attenuated to both 
ends, acuminate, quite entire, fmooth above, dotted at 
the back, fubfeflile, an inch and a half long. Flowers 
fmall, dirty yellow', inodorous. Found every-where 
about Carthagenain New Spain, on the borders of woods; 
flowering in September and Odober. 
3. Pedlis linifolia : leaves linear quite entire, even on 
both fides. This plant is fpreading and flender, and 
feldom rifes above eighteen or twenty inches in height. 
It is a native of the Weft Indies; and common in all 
fugar-iflands. 
4. Pedis humifufa : leaves ovate dotted underneath, 
ciliate on both fides at the bafe, ftems procumbent. Na¬ 
tive of Guadaloupe and Santa Cruz. 
5. Pedis proftrata : leaves oblong, fringed at the bafe ; 
flowers feflile ; calyx-leaves elliptic-oblong; ftem procum¬ 
bent. Native of New Spain. It flowered at Madrid in 
the autumn of 1795. This feems, as Willdenow remarks, 
very near the former, from which it differs in having 
longer leaves, but efpecially in the want of (talks to the 
flowers, which are quite feflile, either at the ends of the 
branches, or in the fork between them. The leaves are 
an inch or more in length ; glaucous and dotted, as in 
the foregoing, underneath. 
6. Pedis pinnata: leaves deeply pinnatifid, thread-fhaped; 
ftem panicled ; feed-down of feveral jagged feales as long 
as the florets. Frequent in New Spain. It has been cul¬ 
tivated for twenty-five years paft in the gardens of Spain 
and France. Roth fays the root is annual, which w'e be¬ 
lieve to be the cafe; Lamarck makes it perennial. Stem 
ered, two feet high, leafy, angular, deeply furrowed, 
fmooth, alternately branched, panicled, many-flowered. 
Leaves alternate, almoft capillary, and obtufe, like fome 
of the finer kinds of Artemifia; one inch and a half or 
two inches long ; fmooth, very bitter, befprinkled all 
overwith minute glandular dots. Flower-ftalks fcattered 
and terminal, angular, roundifti, flender, fingle-flowered, 
with one linear brade ; calyx turbinate ; its leaves obo- 
vate, befprinkled with minute fiiining dots, and beauti¬ 
fully tinged with violet; corolla yeilow ; the radiant flo¬ 
rets but one or two, ovate; thole of the difk about fix. 
Seeds fquare, with briftly angles. Down of five or more 
very beautiful, rather unequal, lanceolate, acute, mem¬ 
branous, glittering feales, all ftreaked with purple, their 
edges more or lefs deeply jagged or fringed ; thele feales 
are about as long as the corolla of each floret, and we do 
not find them ever accompanied with any briftles. 
PEC'TIS, /'. An ancient mufical inftrument, of the 
form or ufe of which we are not very certain. Athenteus 
fays, that the pedis, magadis, and barbiton, were the 
fame inftrument. It has been fuppofed to have been a 
dicord, a fmall inftrument of two firings, with a neck, or 
finger-board, by which they were fliortened with the 
prefliire of the fingers, and a complete fcale produced. 
PEC'TORAL, adj. [from pcRoralis, Lat.] Belonging 
to the breaft.—Take your fpedacles, fir; it flicks in the 
paper, and was a peRoral roll we prepared for you to (wal¬ 
low down to your heart. Milton's Anim. Rem. Defence. — 
Tar-water is extremely peRoral and reftorative. Bp. 
Berkeley's Siris. — PeRoral medicines, in the language of 
