760 
PER 
tally, a genus of the clafs dioecia, order polyandria, na¬ 
tural order of tricoccae, Linn, (euphorbiae, Juff.) Ge¬ 
neric characters—Male. Calyx : perianthium two¬ 
leaved, very fmall : leaflets oppoflte, oblong, fomewhat 
concave, fpreading, the upper one twice as big as the 
other. Corolla: petal one, femiglobular-concave, hang¬ 
ing down, heart-fhaped at the bafe, fcarcely emarginate 
at the tip. Neffary -. membranes multifid, fomewhat 
plaited, ereCt, inferted into the receptacle between the 
rows of Aamens. Stamina : filaments very many (24. to 
30), fet tranfverfely in a double row, thickilh, upright, 
the height of the neCtary ; antherae thickifli, four-corner¬ 
ed, oblong, blunt, upright, raifed above the neCtary. 
Pilfillum: germs four, barren, very fmall, fubglobular, 
very fhortly pedicelled, placed at the angles of the recep¬ 
tacle above the neCtary ; (tyle very fliort, upright. Stigmas 
three : with fegments peltate, (landing out at the tips. 
Female, on a feparate tree. Calyx : perianthium as in 
the male, deciduous. Corolla: as in the male. NeCtary 
as in the male, with the membranes approximating, fome¬ 
what inflated, filling the difk of the receptacle. Piftillum: 
germs four, fertile, inferted into the receptacle, as in the 
male, a little larger, (hortly pedicelled. Style to each, 
upright, fliort, three-cornered. Stigmas as in the male. 
Pericarpium : capfule obovate, fubtrigonal, hanging 
down from the elongated pedicel, three-celled, three- 
valved : valves bifid, at length two-parted. Seeds foli- 
tary, obovate-truncated, fmooth, fmall. 
Mutis fufpeCts, that what he has called calyx may be 
braff.es. The part in quellion is, according to him, glo- 
bofe before its expanlion, with a longitudinal future, by 
the burlting of which the original or proper orifice be¬ 
comes tranfverfe, the receptacle projects almoft out of this 
corolla (or calyx), the flower becoming pendulous from 
the (lightly-drooping fummit of the incurved flower- 
Italk.— EjJential Charader. Male: Calyx concave, of 
one leaf; petals none; neCtary a plaited membrane; an- 
rherae quadrangular, Ample; germens four, abortive. 
Female: Calyx concave, of one leaf; petals none; neCtary 
a plaited membrane ; capfule (talked, obovate, of three 
cells and three valves; feeds folitary. 
Perula arborea, the only lpecies. Native of New Gra¬ 
nada, about Mariquita, where it was found by Mutis, 
and defcribed by him in the Stockholm Tranfaftions for 
1784, p. 299. 
PF/RUM, a town of Perfia, in the province of Mecran, 
on the Nehenk: fixty miles fouth-weft of Kelveh, and 
170 north-north-ealf of Kidge. 
PERU'SAL, f. The act of reading.—As pieces of mi¬ 
niature mult be allowed a clofer infpeCtion, fo this treatife 
requires application in the perufal. Woodward. —If upon 
a new perufal you think it is written in the very fpirit of 
the ancients, it deferves your care, and is capable of 
being improved. After bury. —Examination.—The jury, 
after a fliort perufal of the itaff, declared their opinion by 
the mouth of their foreman, that the fubftance of the ft a ft’ 
was Britifh oak. Taller, N° 265. 
PERU'SE (La), a town of France, in the department 
of the Charente : nine miles fouth of Confolent. 
To PERU'SE, v. a. To read.—Carefully obferve, 
whether he talles the diftingnifhing perfections or the 
fpecifick qualities of the author whom he perufes. Addi¬ 
tion's Sped. 
Perufe this writing here, and thou (halt know' 
The'treafon. ShakeJ'peare' s Rich. II. 
To obferve ; to examine : 
I’ve perus'd her well; 
Beauty and honour in her are fo mingled, 
'T hat they have caught the king. , Shakefpeare. 
PERU'SER,/ A reader; examiner.—Marke herein 
his laborioufe and fruteful doinges, and ye dial fynde him 
no leflfe profitable to us in the defcrypcion of this parti¬ 
cular nacyon, than were Strabo, Pliny, Ptholome, and 
PER 
other geographers, to their perufers, in the pyCturinge 
out of the univerfall worlde. Bale's Leland's New Year's 
Gift. —The difficulties and hefitations of every one will 
be according to the capacity of each perufsr, and as his 
penetration into nature is greater or lefs. Woodward. 
PERUSSEAU' (Silvan), a French Jefuit in the 18th 
century, who is fpoken of as an ornament to the fociety 
by^his virtues, and was greatly admired and followed as 
a preacher, and director of confciences. He was con- 
fertor, at firft to the dauphin, and afterwards to the king; 
and he retained the office laft mentioned till his death in 
1751, at an age which is not fpecified. He publiflied 
only A Funeral Oration for the Duke of Lorrain, and A 
Panegyric on St. Louis ; but after his death, two volumes 
of Select Sermons were printed from his manuferipts, in 
1758, 12010. It is acknowledged, that thefe fermons do 
not rival thofe of Bourdaloue for powerful and forcible 
reafoning,northofe of Martillon for ftriking andinimitably- 
pathetic paflages ; they are faid, however, to merit dif- 
tinCiion from the ordinary clafs of pulpit-compofitions, 
and to be recommended by importance and weight of 
fentiment, order and regularity of method, livelinefs of 
imagination, and an eafy, noble, and varied, eloquence. 
PERUSS'ICK, a caftle of Dalmatia : tw'enty-four miles 
eaft of Zara. 
PERUVEL'S, a town of France, in the department of 
the North : five miles north of Conde. 
PERU'VI AN, j. A native of Peru. 
PERU'VIAN, adj. Appertaining to Peru. 
PERU'VI AN BAR'K. See Cinchona. 
PERU'VIAN MAS'TIC-TREE. See Schinus. 
PERUVIA'NA, a general name given to that vaft pe- 
ninfula, extending itfelf form the Ifthmus of Darien to 
Cape Florn, in the form of a triangle, of which the Terra 
Magellanica and the Cape from the vertex. It includes 
the whole of South America, although, as is well known, 
all the countries included within thefe limits did never 
acknowledge the dominion of the crown of Spain. See 
Terra Firma. 
PERUVEL'Z, a town of the Netherlands, in the pro¬ 
vince of Hainault ; containing 5302 inhabitants. 
PERUZ'ZI (Baldaflare), an eminent Italian painter, 
was born at Accajano, in the territory of Sienna, in 1481, 
in poor and diltrefled circumftances ; his father having 
been reduced from a (late of comparative affluence, by 
the civil wars which ravaged Florence and its territory. 
Baldaflare exhibited his genius at a very early age; firft 
by imitation of the works of others, and afterwards by 
original productions in the city of Volterra, where his 
family reiided. Thence he went to Rome, and placed 
himfelf with the father of Maturino; and, becoming con- 
fpicuous for ability, w’as at length employed by pope 
Alexander VI. and alfo in many churches and convents 
in that city, in which he produced pictures juftly en¬ 
titled to exalted praife. 
Together with painting, he ftudied architecture; and 
praCtifed it with confiderable fuccefs. He was alfo re¬ 
nowned for his knowledge of perfpeCtive ; and the works 
he produced in imitation of architectural projections, 
excited even the furprife and admiration of Titian. But 
his higheft renown is founded upon the works of a much 
more elevated clafs ; viz. his paintings in frefco and in 
oil; in which he exhibited a talte and ltyle not unworthy 
of Raphael. His Judgment of Paris in the caftle of Bel- 
caro, and his Sibyl at Fonte Giufta in Sienna, are very 
greatly admired. His genius, however, particularly led 
him to architecture, and to painting as connected with 
it. He remarkably excelled in perfpeCtive views of ftreets, 
palaces, porticoes, the infides of apartments, and the 
like ; and was the firft modern artift who renewed the an¬ 
cient decorations for theatres. By Leo N. he was em¬ 
ployed to give a new model of St. Peter’s, in which he 
improved in many refpeCts upon the original defign of 
Bramante. This was not executed; but it is preferved 
in an engraving in Seflio’s Architecture, and merits the 
notice 
