616 
PER 
upwards, divaricating, obovate, pellucid, yellow, with 
fcarcely anydifcernible pollen. Smith. Tubercles (glands) 
five, immerfed in the ftigma. Piftillum : germs two, 
ovate, acuminate ; ftylcs none ; (two very fhort, united, 
villofe; ftigmas obfolete. Smith.) Pericarpium : folli¬ 
cles two. Seed-—. This genus is allied to Peri- 
ploca grseca ; but the charafter wants correction.— Effeii- 
tial Character. Consorted; neCtary furrounding the geni¬ 
tals with five fagittated cufps; corolla falver-lliaped. 
There are fix fpecies. 
i. Pergularia glabra, fmooth pergularia, or fweet 
bower-vine; (Vallaris pergulans, Burm. Inch 51. and 
Broum in Wern. Tran)', i. 31.) Leaves ovate, acute, 
fmooth; Item fhrubby. This fpecies is a native of 
Java and Amboyna, ufed for bowers and treillis-work, 
as it makes a very thick fiiade. The Malay women are 
fond of adorning their hair with its fragrant flowers. 
The Item is perennial, fhrubby, and twining. Leaves 
cppofite, (talked, ovate, acute, entire, thick and fhining, 
five inches long, two and a half or three wide, with ftrong 
pale veins. When the leaves or twigs are wounded, they 
difcharge a thick vifcid yellow milk. Flower-ftalks from 
between the footllalks, forked, corymbofe. Flowers 
white, and highly fragrant, compared by Rumphius to 
thofe of jafmine, (probably Jafminum Sambac,) but hav¬ 
ing a (liorter tube, with five fhining bodies in the middle. 
He fpeaks of the fcent of thefe flowers as too ftrong for 
Europeans, though highly elteemed by the natives of the 
country where they grow. 
a. Pergularia edulis, or eatable pergularia : leaves ovate 
acuminate, fmooth : ftem herbaceous. The ftem of this 
is alfo twining, but herbaceous ; whereas in the preceding 
it is fhrubby. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
3. Pergularia odoratiflima, fweet-fcented pergularia, or 
Cbinefe creeper: leaves heart-fhaped, nearly fmooth; 
neCtary and genitals fhorter than the tube of the corolla ; 
ftigma conical, obtufe. Root branched, much fpreading, 
whitifh. Stem fhrubby, twining branched, round ; its 
bark afli-coloured, fpongy, full of longitudinal fiflures; 
branches nearly oppofite, very long, flaccid, moftly Ample, 
round, brown, downy, leafy. Leaves oppofite, fpreading 
and bent downwards, pointed, entire, (lightly concave, 
opaque, veiny, downy on the veins and margin, paler be¬ 
neath : footftalks one fourth of the length of the leaves, 
round, downy, with a furrow along the upper fide, fur- 
niflied at the bafe on each fide and at the top with two or 
three acute brown-tipped glands. Flowers the fizeofa 
primrofe, yellowifli green ; calyx bell-fhaped, deeply five- 
cleft; fegrnents lanceolate, veined, (lightly downy, mi¬ 
nutely ciliated, tipped with brown ; tube of the corolla a 
little longer than the calyx, (lightly downy, ftriped ; in¬ 
flated, and with five fwellings in the bafe ; having a per¬ 
vious orifice, fet with numerous hairs pointing backwards. 
Sir Jofeph Banks is faid to have fent this to Kew about 
the year 1784.. It is cultivated in China, as a favourite 
bower-plant, though of what precife country a native is 
not known. We have been told it is wild in Sumatra. 
Lady Amelia Hume received a fine plant of this fpecies in 
1 789, which covered the (tern of the (hip with its fragrant 
green blofloms, during a great part of the voyage, and 
lias fince been widely propagated in this country. It 
thrives either in a ftove or warm confervatory, flowering 
throughout thefummerand autumn, and exhaling, in an 
evening, that peculiar, light, lemon-like, but lufcious, 
fragrance, of which the Chinefe are fo fond, and which 
belongs to various greenifli night-fcented flowers, as the 
Chloranthus inconfpicuus, and fome Orchidese. 
| 3 . P.tomentofa. This variety, with fomewhat rounder 
leaves, and more tawny flowers, is cultivated for its agree¬ 
able fragrance in the gardens of the Eaft Indies. It was 
brought to the Kew garden about the fame time that 
Lady Hume had the Chinefe plant. The fpecimen in the 
Linnaean herbarium is from China, whence it appears to 
have been brought to the Upfal garden : and to this be- 
P E R 
longs the defcription in the Mantilla, 53. where the leaves 
are, not much amifs, defcribed as fmooth : but the fpeci- 
fic character and place of growth relate to a widely differ¬ 
ent plant, the Afclepias cordata of Forfkall. 
4. Pergularia minor, fweet yellow pergularia, or Weft- 
Coaft creeper; (Cynanchum odoratiflimuin, Loureir. 
Cochinch. 166.) Leaves heart-fhaped, obtufe with a point; 
panicles axillary; calyx nearly as long as the tube of the 
corolla. Native of the Eaft Indies, where it is cultivated 
for the fame reafon as the foregoing. From dried fpeci- 
mens this plant had been confidered as a variety alfo; 
but, when compared alive, they appear to be diftindt fpe¬ 
cies. Befides what is noted in the fpecific character, the 
prefent is rather fnialler in all its parts, with fewer flow¬ 
ers in each panicle. The corolla has broader and blunter 
fegrnents, of a tawny yellow on their upper furface. In¬ 
troduced into England by fir Jofeph Banks in 1784, and 
blooms in a ftove all fummer long. 
5. Pergularia purpurea, or purple pergularia: leaves 
heart-fhaped, fmooth ; fegrnents of the corolla linear- 
oblong, fmooth ; umbels proliferous. Branches twining, 
(lender, afli-coloured, appearing villofe when examined 
by a glafs. Leaves oppofite, nerved and veined, two in¬ 
ches long; the upper one lefs ; petiole the length of the 
leaves. It is allied to P. Japonica, but the umbels are 
proliferous, not fimple; the fegrnents alfo of the border 
are linear, not ovate: (till it may be doubted whether 
they are adlually diftinft. Native of the Eaft Indies and 
of China. 
6. Pergularia Japonica, or Japan pergularia: leaves 
heart-fhaped, fmooth ; fegrnents of the corolla ovate, vil¬ 
lofe within; umbels fimple. Stem twining, round, 
fmooth, fimple. Leaves oppofite, acute; quite entire, 
nerved, fpreading, an inch long, on round fmooth pe¬ 
tioles. Flowers axillary, peduncled, ereCt ; calyx parted 
almoft to the bafe, fhorter than the corolla; the parts 
lanceolate, rough-haired. Tube of the corolla bell- 
fhaped, a little fhorter than the calyx : fegrnents of the 
border blunt, fpreading and bent back ; fmooth on the 
outfide, but villofe within. Native of Japan, where it 
flowers in Auguft. 
Loureiro has two other fpecies, both natives of China, 
which he names clivaricata and fmenfis. He remarks, tint 
in all the fpecies of Pergularia and Apocynum which he 
had feen, the flowers have one piltil only. See As- 
CLEPIAS. 
PERGUN'NAH, f. In the language of Hindooftan, 
means the largeft fubdivifion of a province, whereof the 
revenues are brought to one particular headcutchery , from 
whence the accounts and cafh are tranfmitted to the gene¬ 
ral cutchery of the province. 
PERHAP'S, adv. Peradventure; it may be.—Some¬ 
what excellent may be invented, perhaps more excel¬ 
lent than the firft defign, though Virgil mull be ftill 
excepted when that perhaps takes place. Dryden. — 
It is not his intent to live in fuch ways as, for ought 
we know, God may perhaps pardon ; but to be diligent 
in fuch ways as we know that God will infallibly reward. 
Law. 
Perhaps the good old man that kifs’d his fon, 
And left a bleffing on his head, 
His arms about him fpread, 
Hopes yet to fee him ere his glafs be run. Flatman. 
Perhaps new graces darted from her eyes, 
Perhaps foft pity charm’d his yielding foul. 
Perhaps her love, perhaps her kingdom, charm’d him. 
Smith. 
PERHA'Y (Point de), a cape on the weft coart of 
France : fix miles fouth-eaft of Point St. Matthew. Lat. 
15. 2. N. Ion. 4. 45. W. 
PERHO', a town of Sweden, in the government of 
Wafa : fifty-fix miles eaft of Jacobftadt. 
PERHYEMA'TION,/. [from the Lat. per, through, 
and 
