PEL PEL 513 
of mountains which the ancients comprehended under PELISSA'NE, a town of France, in the department of 
the name of Olympus. When the giants are faid to have the Mouths of the Rhone : three miles eaft of Salon, and 
piled OlTa upon Pelion, the meaning feems to be, that fifteen wefl-fouth-weft of Aix. 
they had fortified thefe two mountains, whither they re- PELI'SSE,/. [French; from pelyce, Sax. from the 
tired after their excurfions, and kept Jupiter’s garrifon Lat. pellis, a fkin.] A kind of coat or robe. See Pilch, 
upon Mount Olympus in awe. The top of the mountain the old word.—Coats lined with thefe fkins are called pe- 
was covered with pine-trees. The celebrated huge fpear lijjes. Guthrie of Grim Tartary. 
of Achilles, which none but the hero could wield, had PELL, f. [ pellis , Lat.] Parchment or vellum upon 
been cut down on this mountain, and was thence called which bills, deeds, &c. are written.—Clerk of the pells, 
pelias. It was a prefent from his preceptor Chiron, who, an officer belonging to the exchequer, who enters every 
like the other Centaurs, had fixed his refidence here, teller’s bill into a parchment roll called pellis acceptorum, 
Letnpriere. the roll of receipts; and alfo makes another roll called 
PELIOSAN'THES, [from weTuo;, livid or lurid, and pellis exituum, a roll of the difburfements. Bailey. 
ouf 0 o;, a flower; fo named by the late Mr. George Jack- PELL (John), a divine of the church of England, 
fon, in Andrews’s Repofitory, in allufion to the pale lead- and an eminent mathematician, was born at Southwick in 
colour, for which the flowers are remarkable. Andr. Re- Suflex, of which his father was minifter, in the year 1610. 
pof. ix. 605. Ker in Curt. Mag. 32.1302.] In botany, He was educated in grammar-learning at the free-fchool 
a genus of the clafs hexandria, order monogynia, natu- of Steyning in the fame county; and made fo rapid a 
ral order farmentacese, Linn, (afparagi, JitJJ.) Generic proficiency in the Latin and Greek languages, that at the 
chara< 5 !ers—Calyx : none, unlefs the corolla be taken early age of thirteen he was fully qualified for entering 
for fuch. Corolla: inferior, of one petal, permanent; upon academic ftudies, and fent to Trinity-College, Cam- 
tube cylindrical 5 limb wheel-fhaped, in fix equal obovate bridge. Here he profecuted his ftudies with the greateft 
fegmenls; neftary of one leaf, globular, contracted at diligence and intenfenefs ; and, befides a wonderful faci- 
the mouth, one-third the length of the petal. Stamina: lity in acquiring languages, he poflefled a peculiar turn 
filaments very fhort, equal, inferted into the infide of the towards mathematical learning; fo that, in 1629, when 
neCtary; antherae oblong, of two lobes and two cells, only eighteen years of age, he drew up “A Defcription 
projecting juft beyond the neCtary. Piftillum : germen and Ufe of the Quadrant, written for the ufe ofa Friend, in 
fuperior, enveloped in the neCtary, globofe; ftyle fcarcely two Books.” In the fame year he held a correfpondence 
any; ftigma of three obtufe furrowed lobes. Pericarpi- with the celebrated Henry Briggs, upon the fubjeCl of 
um : berry ovate, of three cells. Seeds two in each cell, Logarithms. In 1630, he wrote “Modus fupputandi 
fome of them frequently abortive.— EJfential Character. Ephemerides Aflronomicas (quantum ad motum Solis 
Corolla tubular; limb wheel-fhaped, in fix fegments ; fta- attinet) paradigmate ad An. 1630, accommodato 5” and 
mens inferted into the globular neCtary; berry with three “ A Key to unlock the meaning of Johannes Trithemius, 
ceils, and fix feeds. There are two fpecies. ip his Difcourfe of Steganography.” He had been ad- 
1. Peliofanthes teta, or grey-flowered teta : flower- mitted to the degree of B. A. at the regular period, and 
ftalks taller than the leaves ; corolla obtufe. Gathered in the prefent year he proceeded M. A. He now quitted 
by Dr. Roxburgh in Bengal. Living plants were fent by Cambridge, and paid a vifit to Oxford, where he was in- 
him to the late lady Amelia Hume, in whofe ftove they corporated M. A. in 1631. During this year he wrote 
flowered in the following fpring, for the firft time in Eng- “ A Letter to Mr. Edmund Wingate, on Logarithms ;” 
land. Root fibrous, perennial; Item none; leaves feve- and he drew up “ Commentationes in Cofmographiam 
ral, radical, ereCt, a foot or more in height, on channelled Eftedii.” 
ftalks, elliptical, pointed at each end, entire, rather rigid, Mr. Pell feems to have formed an early intention of enter- 
evergreen, fmooth, plaited, with many longitudinal ribs, inginto the marriage-llate; which was moft probably the 
and fine tranfverfe veins. Flower-ftalks ereCI, round, fim- reafon that prevented him from offering himfelf a candi- 
ple, fmooth, fomewhat glaucous, each bearing an up- date either for a fcholarfhip or fellowfhip in Trinity-col- 
right clufter of numerous inodorous fmall flowers, feat- lege- Otherwife there can be no doubt but that his ex- 
tered or in tufts, of a livid purplifh lead-colour, inter- traordinary accomplifhments would have fecured to him 
mixed with dull green. BraCtes fcattered, ovate, pointed, any encouragement which his college could offer, to en- 
concave, membranous, pale. The flowers fall off even gage his refidence in it: for, befides his reputation as a 
before they wither, without producing any fruit in this mathematician, he was diftinguifhed, not only by his in¬ 
country. The natives of Bengal know this plant by the timate knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but 
name of teta; but we find nothing recorded of its quali- alfo of the Arabic, Italian, French, Spanifh, and High 
ties or virtues. and Low-Dutch, languages. His inclination, however, 
2. Peliofanthes humilis, or dwarf teta: flower-ftalks led him to renounce all chances of college-preferment 
fhorter than the leaves; clufter Ample; corolla acute, for the enjoyment of domeftic felicity; and, in the year 
Introduced from Prince of Wales’s Ifland, about the year 1732* he married a lady by whom he had four fons and 
1808, by Mr. Evans of Stepney, in whofe hot-houfe it four daughters. But Mr. Pell’s matrimonial connexion 
bloflomed in November. This differs from the former in did not diminifh his ardour for mathematical purfuits. 
itsmuch humbler ftature, the leaves being not more than In 1633-4, he finifhed his “ Aftronomical Hiftory of Ob- 
three inches high, and the flower-ftalk hardly two inches, fervations of Heavenly Motions and Appearances;” and 
bearing an ovate denfe Ample clufter of flowers, whofe foon afterwards his “ Eclipticaprognojlica, or the Eclipfe 
fegments are acute, green with a white edge. Prognofticator, or Foreknower of Eclipfes; teaching how 
Mr. Jackfon obferves, that he had feen two fpecies in by calculation to foreknow and foretell all forts of 
Mr. Evans’s collection juft imported from Prince of Eclipfes of the Heavenly Lights.” In 1634, hetranflated 
Wales’s Ifland, one of which had the leaves nearly of a out of Latin, “ The Everlalting Tables of Heavenly Mo- 
blue colour, the other probably w'as our humilis. Mr. tions, grounded upon the obfervations of all times, and 
Evans’s collector declared that he had found five or fix agreeing with them all, by Philip Lanfberg of Ghent in 
diftinCt fpecies of this genus, growing wild in the ifland Flanders, Sec. from the Sexagifal to the Decimal Subdivi- 
juft named, though he did not fucceed in his attempt to fions, for the more eafe in Calculations;” and in the 
bring them alive to England. fame year he wrote “ the Manner of his deducing his 
PELIOU', a town of China, of the third rank, in Aftronomical Tables out of the Tables and Axioms of 
Quang-fi : feventy miles fouth-weft of Ou-tcheou. Philip Lanfberg.” The year 1634 produced from him 
PEL'ISE, a river of France, which rifes in Mount la two “Letters of Remarks on Mr. Gellibrand’s Difcourfe 
Croix, pafles by Lucerna, and runs into the Clufon one mathematical on the Variation of the Magnetic Needle.” 
mile fouth of Vigone. By thefe and other works, which it is not neceflary to 
2 enumerate. 
