P E U 
21 
P E U 
Bceotia, and on the fliores of the Euxine. Root perennial, 
with a fibrous crown. Stems a foot high, bowed, round, 
leafy. Leaves fmooth, a foot long, firft three-cleft, then 
pinnatifid, of a thick leathery texture. Footftalks with 
a hollow (heathing bafe. Umbels yellowifh-white, of 
flout, not numerous, rays. General and partial involu- 
crum of feveral fhort, broad, acute leaves. Corolla a little 
irregular. Seeds with a thickifh border. This plant has 
much of theafped of an Heracleum. 
11. Peucedanum microphyllum, or fmall-leaved ful¬ 
phur-wort: leaves thrice pinnate; leaflets three-cleft, 
fiefhy. General involucrum fcarcely any. Gathered 
plentifully in the fait deferts about the Wolga, by Pallas, 
whofent it to Linnaeus as a new peucedanum, but we do 
not find that it has been any-where publifhed. It is 
fmaller than the laft, with differently compounded leaves, 
and much fmaller leaflets. Stem glaucous. General in¬ 
volucrum fometimes of a Angle fetaceous leaf, but of- 
tener wanting, as the partial ones alfo feem moftly to be. 
We have feen no feeds, fo that the genus muff remain 
doubtful. 
12. Peucedanum nodofum, or knobbed fulphur-wort: 
leaflets alternately multifid. The ffalks rife a foot and a 
half high, having pretty large knots at the joints, from 
each of which fprings a leaf cut into many divifions: the 
flowers terminate the ffalks in umbels, and appear the 
beginning of July; in warm feafons the feeds will ripen 
in the autumn. Native of Crete or Candia, and not of 
long duration in England. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 
1768. 
13. Peucedanum geniculatum, or jointed fulphur-wort: 
leaves roundifh, kidney-form, crenate. Native of New 
Zealand. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants are propagated 
by feeds fown in the autumn, foon after they are ripe: 
thofe which are fown in the fpring feldom fucceeding, or 
at bell not coming up till the fpring following. Keep the 
plants clean from weeds, and in theaulumn tranfplant 
them where they are to remain. They love a moiff foil 
and a lhady fituation, but will not thrive under the drip 
of trees. 
Peucedanum minus. See Pimpinella dioica. 
PEU'CER (Gafpard), a phyfician, mathematician, and 
man of learning, was born in 1525 at Bautzen in Lufatia. 
He was educated at theuniverfity of Wittemberg, where 
he was received into the houfe of Melanchthon, one of 
whofe daughters he married in 1550. He applied parti¬ 
cularly to the ftudies of mathematics and medicine, and 
was made profeflor of the former at Wittemberg, in 
1559. In the following year he took the degree of doc¬ 
tor of phyfic, and obtained a medical chair in the fame 
univerffty. Having imbibed the religious opinions of his 
father-in-law, but attended with more ardour of difpoli- 
tion, he publ ifhed, in 1565, a fixth book of Cat ion’s Chro¬ 
nicle, in which he launched out into bitter invedives 
againft the church of Rome. A fufpicion of attachment 
to the dodrines of the facramentarians caufed him in 
1576 to be imprifoned, firftat Drefden, and then at Leipfic, 
by Auguftus eledor of Saxony ; and he was not liberated 
till ten years after, by Chriftian, the fuccelforof Auguf¬ 
tus. _ During his confinement, not being allowed paper 
and ink, he wrote his thoughts upon the margins of old 
books with ink made of burnt crufts tempered in w’ater. 
He retired to the Hates of his protedor the prince of An¬ 
halt, w'here he died in 1602. 
Peucer was the author of various works both in mathe¬ 
matics and medicine. One of the mcft remarkable w'as 
- entitled “ De variis Divinationum generibus,” 1553, 8vo. 
frequently reprinted, and tranflated into French: it is a 
piece of much curious erudition, but difplaying a great 
fhare of credulity. A large part of it relates to medical 
prognoftics; and one paflage in it has been produced as 
implying the author’s knowledge of the circulation of 
the blood ; but it is in fad only a ftatement of the Galen¬ 
ical dodrine. One of his works is biographical, entitled 
Von. XX. No. 1347. 
“Vitae illuftrium Medicorum.” He edited the works of 
Melanchthon in 5 vols. fol. 1601. Melchior Adam. Mo~ 
reri. Elny. Did. Med. 
PEUCES'TES, a Macedonian fet over Egypt by Alex¬ 
ander. He received Perfia at the general divifion of the 
Macedonian empire at the king’s death. He behaved 
with great cowardice after he had joined himfelf to 
Eumenes. Nep.in Eum. 
PEV'ENSEY, a member of the town and port of Haf- 
tings, in the county of Suffex, is fituated on the Englifli 
Channel, fixty miles fouth-eall by fouth from London. 
Though of little note now, Pevenfey was formerly of 
importance as a commercial port; but the gradual rece¬ 
ding of the fea, from which it now (lands at feme dif- 
tance, has occafioned its decline. Boats with difficulty 
afeend to the village by a finall rivulet- It is a place of 
great antiquity, and, according to Richard of Cirencefter, 
was the Anderida Portus of the Romans. It is reckoned 
among the fea-ports ravaged by Godwin earl of Kent, in 
the time of Edward the Conteffor. It is alfo celebrated 
in hiftory, as the place wdiere William the Conqueror 
landed with his invading army. 
From Madox’s Hiftory of the Exchequer, it appears 
that in the fixth year of the reign of king John, Peven¬ 
fey, among other trading-towns, paid a quinzieme, or 
tax, for its merchandife; and that three years afterwards 
the barons of Pevenfey fined forty marks for licence to 
build a town upon a fpot between Pevenfey and Langley, 
which ftiould enjoy tire fame privileges as the cinque- 
ports, and have a yearly fair to laft feventeen days, com¬ 
mencing on the anniverfary of St. John Baptift; alfo a 
market every Saturday. Whether any part of this grant 
was ever carried into effed, we are not informed. 
The only relic of the ancient confequence of Pevenfey 
is the callle, which (lands on the ead fide of the town. 
The name of the builder, and the date of its erection, 
are alike unknown ; but, from the quantity of Roman, 
bricks employed in the works, there is much reafon to 
believe that it was conftruded out of fome Roman for- 
trefs. The external walls, of which the towers are tole¬ 
rably entire to the height of twenty feet, are circular, 
and inclofe an area of (even acres. The principal en¬ 
trance is from the weft or land fide, between two round 
towers, in which are confiderable layers of Roman brick, 
fome (ingle, others double, about twenty feet from the 
ground, and four or five alunder. Many fuch layers of 
white brick, or (lone hewn into that form, lie between 
the ftrata of red, or, in place of them, in the walls be¬ 
tween the other towers to the north-weft; and in the 
north-eaft tower are fome (tones laid herring-bone fafhion 
towards the bottom. Within is a fmaller fortification, of 
a quadrangular form, moated on the north and weft. It 
has round towers, and a drawbridge which correfponds 
with the outer gate, and, like the latter, is not in the cen- 
tre of the weft fide, but rather more to the fouth. The 
eall wall of both is the fame, and (lands on a kind of cliff’, 
that appears to have been once waffled by the fea, which, 
however, muff have receded before the town was builr. 
There are no Roman bricks in the inner work, and only 
in the north and well fides of the outer. Several of the 
turrets in the latter are of (olid mafonry, and.feem to have 
been defigned, not for defence, but to deceive an enemy. 
In the area of the outer caftle, are two culverins without 
carriages; one of them meafures eleven feet in length, is 
hooped, has a rofe and crown, and the letters E. R. marked 
on it, probably for Elizabeths Regina ; the other is twelve 
feet long, and is marked W. P. They lie within two 
yards of one another, funk into the earth, and pointing to 
the fea. Sir William Burrell relates, that, in 1710, a 
workman engaged in conveying water from the moat of 
the caftle into the town, was obliged for that purpofe to 
make his way under the wall, the thicknefs of which he 
computed to be about ten feet. The foundation he dis¬ 
covered to confill of piles, planked over with (labs of an 
extraordinary fubftance; bur, nctwithftanding the length 
G of 
