472 
PEG 
teen, awl-fhaped, fliorter by half than the corolla, dila¬ 
ted at the bafe into a neftary under the germ ; antheras 
oblong, eredh Piftillum : germ roundilh-three-cornered, 
raifed on a receptacle from the bafe of the flower. Style 
filiform, round, the length of the antheras; ftigma ob¬ 
long, three-fided. Pericarpium : capfule roundifh-three- 
cornered, three-celled, three-valved, with contrary par¬ 
titions. Seeds very many, ovate, acuminate. Linnaeus 
remarks, that Peganum differs from Rura, as Celaftrus 
from Euonymus; for what is taken from the number of 
the piftil is added to the ftamens, and vice verfa.— EJJen- 
tial Chara&er. Calyx five-leaved or none; corolla five- 
petalled ; capfule three-celled, three-valved, many-feed- 
ed. There are four fpecies. 
1. Peganum harmala, or Syrian rue; (Ruta fylveftris, 
Bauhin .) Leaves multifid. Root as large as a man’s lit¬ 
tle finger, by age becoming woody. The (talks decay 
every autumn, and new ones arife in the fpring: they 
grow about a foot long, and divide into feveral fmall 
branches. Leaves thick, oblong, cut into feveral narrow 
fegments, dark green, gummy, and of a bitterifli tafte. 
The flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, 
fitting clofe between the leaves; corolla white. Native 
of Spain, the county of Nice, Syria, Cappadocia, Galatia, 
and Siberia. It was cultivated here in 1570, as appears 
from Lovel; it flowers in July, and in warm fummers 
the feeds will ripen herein the autumn. 
2. Peganum crithmifoliutn : leaves many-cleft ; Item 
fhrubby. Gathered near the Cafpian Sea by Pallas, who 
lent feeds to Retzius. The latter diftinguifhes this, as a 
fpecies, from P. harmala, on account of its fhrubby pe¬ 
rennial ftem, which is three or four feet high, whereas 
the other is fcarcely half fo tall, and the fmaller fize of 
its flowers. As to the calyx, whofe leaves he fays are di- 
vided in the harmala, this is but rarely the cafe, and 
chiefly, as it feetns to us, in garden fpecimens. 
3. Peganum retufum : leaves wedge-fhaped, abrupt; 
ftem fhrubby. Gathered by Forfkall in Egypt, near 
Alexandria. The Arabians call it gharghed. This is a 
fhrub, with fpinous downy branches, and fomevvhat 
fiefhy leaves. 
4. Peganum dauricum : leaves lanceolate, (lightly cre¬ 
mate; ftem herbaceous. Native of gravelly places in Si¬ 
beria. Root thick, wood}', perennial. Stems numerous, 
ereft, flender, moftly Ample, leafy, round, fmooth, 
fcarcely a foot high. Leaves fcattered, feflile, half an 
inch long, glaucous, befprinkled with glandular dots. 
Flowers few, fomewhat corymbofe, at the fumrnit of 
each ftem, white, not half the fize of the firfl fpecies, and 
differing widely from that in the form of the calyx-leaves, 
which are very fliort and ovate. The capfule is defcribed 
by Ammann as of three, rarely four, cells, with two or 
three feeds in each. 
Linnaeus feems to have been led by Gmelin’s plate to 
fuppofe this had no calyx, and therefore he fays, in the 
ihort generic character, “calyx five-leaved, or none,” 
which Willdenow copies. The calyx however, though 
final!, is prefent, and refembles in fhape, though not in 
hairinefs, that of Ruta fruticulofa, (Labill. Syr. t. 4. 
Willd. Sp. PL ii. 545.) to which P. dauricum has a con- 
fiderable general relemblance. The plants neverthelefs 
are fpecifically, and as it appears by Labiilardiere’s figure 
of the fruit, genetically, diftiinSV. 
Propagation and Culture. They are propagated by 
feeds, fown thinly on a bed of light earth, the beginning 
of April ; when the plants come up, keep them clean 
from weeds : at the end of October or beginning of No¬ 
vember, when the ftalks decay, cover the bed with tan¬ 
ner’s bark, allies, or fawduft, to keep out the froft, for 
the roots are fomewhat tender when young. In March 
following tranf'plant them into a warm fituation and dry 
foil, where they will continue feveral years. 
PEGASE'AN, adj. Belonging to Pegaf’us. 
PEGAS'IDES, a name given to the Mufes from the 
PEG 
liorfe Pegafus, or from the fountain which Pegafus had 
raifed from the ground by ftriking it with his foot. 
PEG'ASUS, in fabulous hiftory, a winged horfefprung 
from the blood of Medufa, when Perfeus had cut off her 
head. He received his name from his being born, accor¬ 
ding to Heliod, near the fources {irriyri) of the ocean. 
As loon as born, he left the earth, and flew up into hea¬ 
ven ; or rather, according to Ovid, he fixed his refidence 
on Mount Helicon, where, by ftriking the earth with his 
foot, he inftantly raifed a fountain, which has been called 
Hippocrene. He became the favourite of the Mufes; 
and, being afterwards tamed by Neptune or Minerva, he 
was given to Bellerophon to conquer the Chimaera. No 
fooner was this fiery monfter deftroyed, than Pegafus 
threw down his rider, becaule he was a mortal, or rather, 
according to the more received opinion, becaufe he at¬ 
tempted to fly to heaven; for this aft of temerity in B„el- 
lerophon was punifhed by Jupiter, who fent an infeft to 
torment Pegafus, which occafioned the melancholy fall of 
his rider. Pegafus continued his flight up to heaven, and 
was placed among the conftellations by Jupiter. Per¬ 
feus, according to Ovid, was mounted on the horfe Pe¬ 
gafus, when he deftroyed the fea-monfter which was going 
to devour Andromache. 
PEG'ASUS, in aftronomy, the name of a conftellation 
of the northern hemifphere, figured in form of a flying 
horfe. The (tars in this conftellation, in Ptolemy’s Cata¬ 
logue, are 20, in Tycho’s 19, in Hevelius’s 38, in the 
Britannic Catalogue 89. 
PEG'ASUS, f. in ichthyology, a genus of branchiofte- 
gous fifties ; fo named, it is laid, from the fiiape of the 
head and pefforal fins giving it the appearance of a flying 
horfe; but this refemblance muft probably be referred to 
the fecond fpecies, of which we have not been able to 
procure a figure. Generic charaffers—Mouth beneath ; 
fnout retraflile; upper jaw elongated, denticulate, enfi- 
form, and linear; aperture of the gills Angle, before the 
pectoral fins; body comprefled downwards, articulate 
with bony incifures, and mailed ; ventral fins behind the 
peftorals. There are three fpecies, which are all natives 
of the Indian feas, and which are characterized by the 
fhape of the fnout. They live upon (lime, the fpawn or 
ova of other fifh, and upon worms. They were unknown 
to the old writers on fifties. 
1. Pegafus draconis, the fea-dragon : fnout conic. This 
is a fmall fifh, three or four inches in length ; and is re¬ 
markable for the fize of its pecloral fins, which are fup- 
pofed to enable it, like the Exocoeti, and fome other 
fifties, to fuppcrt itfelf fora few feconds in the air, while 
it fprings occafionally over the furface of the water. The 
thorax, or fuperior parr of the body, is of a broad, 
(lightly flattened, fquarifli form ; and is marked, both 
above and beneath, by feveral radiated fliields, or bony 
tubercles of conliderable fize: from each fide of the ab¬ 
domen fprings a lengthened cirrus, which may be confi- 
dered as fupplying the place of a ventral fin. From the 
thorax the body fuddenly decreafes in diameter, and is 
marked into feveral divifions or tranfverfe fegments ; the 
tail is final!, and fiightly rounded. ThepeCtora! fins are, 
as it has been already obferved, large in proportion to the 
fize of the animal, and of a rounder fhape, with a kind 
of fcaliaped or indented outline. The fnout is of a fub- 
conical form, but with.a flight dilatation towards the 
tip, fo as to appear fpatule-fhaped when viewed from 
above. .Both jaws are furnifhed with exceedingly fmall 
teeth, and the mouth opens underneath. The eyes are 
on the Tides of the head; they are protuberant, and have 
a black pupil inclofed in a yellow iris; and this fifh can 
fee perfectly well on each fide as well as forwards, the 
pupil of the eye being very moveable. The noftrils are 
near the eyes. The principal colour is bluifli ; but the 
tubercles are brown. The fins have fitnple rays; each 
ventral confifts of one long ray ; and there is a ray of the 
fame length over each pectoral fin : thefe fingle rays it i$ 
probable 
