P O I 
pellucid dots; ftipules awl-fhaped, diftinCt from the foot- 
ftalks; clutters axillary, of a few fmall yellow bra&eated 
flowers, dotted like the leaves; ftamens fometimes but 
eight. 
Other genera have borne the name of Poiretia. 
One of them, fo called by Cavanilles in his leones, iv. 
24, had previoufly been publifhed as Sprengelia. See 
that article. One of the anonymous genera of Walter’s 
Flora Caroliniana, of which Gmelin knew nothing, was 
called by him Poiretia, nor did he dream that it was 
actually the original Houjionia of Linnaeus. See Purfh, 
i. 106. The Poiretia of the Linn. Tranf. ix. 304, 
being potterior to the Poiretia of Ventenat, has received, 
from Mr. Aiton and Mr. Brown, the name of Hovea, 
(Ait. Hort. Kew. iv. 275.) which is confirmed by Dr. 
Sims, in Curt. Mag. No. 1624. and ferves to commemorate 
a Polifh travelling botanift, Anthony Pantaieon Hove, 
long employed to collect plants for the Kew Garden and 
fir Jofeph Banks. As we could not infert it in its place 
in the alphabet, we fliall copy the defeription here. 
Hovea. Eflential generic character — Calyx two¬ 
lipped ; upper lip bifid retufe. Legume feffile, fpherical, 
inflated, one celled, two-feeded. There are two fpecies. 
1. Hovea linearis : leaves linear, revolute. Thisfhrub, 
feeds and fpecimens of which have been fent from New 
South Wales, flowered in Mr. George Hibbert’s rich col¬ 
lection at Clapham in 1798. This fpecies, on which the 
genus is founded, is a rather flender flirub, with alternate 
round leafy branches, clothed in their younger and 
upper parts with fliort denfe filky hairs. Leaves alter¬ 
nate, on fhort, thick, hairy footftalks; fpreading, two or 
three inches long, linear, narrow, obtufe with a fmall 
point, fomewhat revolute, obfoletely crenate; fmooth 
above; paler, often hairy and ruftj-coloured, w’ith a pro¬ 
minent rib, beneath ; reticulated on both fides with in¬ 
numerable minute veins. Stipules fmall, linear-lanceo¬ 
late, recurved, rigid, fmooth. Flowers rather fmall, on 
fhort, Ample, axillary, hairy ftalks, either folitary or in 
pairs, with two or more fmall lanceolate braCtes. Calyx 
denfely clothed externally with brown and white Alky 
hairs, in the manner of fome Aftragali, two-lipped, per¬ 
manent ; the upper lip largeft, fpreading upwards, ex¬ 
tremely abrupt, cloven ; lower of three equal lanceolate 
fegments. Corolla longer than the calyx, variegated 
with lilac and violet. Stamens ten, all united into a 
tube cloven to the very bafe at its upper fide and per¬ 
manent under the ripe fruit. Germen roundifh, fmooth. 
Style awl-fhaped, afeending, hairy at the bafe only. 
Stigma obtufe. Legume feflile, naked, minutely furrowed 
and ftriated, of a Alining brown, cartilaginous, globofe, 
or very (lightly comprefled, about a quarter of an 
inch in diameter, tipped with a minute oblique point, 
inflated, of one cell. Seeds two, roundifh, fmooth, varie¬ 
gated, one affixed to each valve at the upper future, and 
accompanied, as in the two genera juft mentioned, by a 
white oblong appendage or ftrophiolum. 
2. Hovea elliptica : leaves elliptic oblong. This is 
known merely by a fpecimen gathered by Mr. Menzies 
at King George’s Sound, on the weft coaft of New 
Holland, which unluckily was not in fruit; but the 
whole habit, and all the parts of the flower, precifely 
agree with the foregoing fpecies. The branches are 
round, alternate, leafy, Alky when young. Leaves 
about an inch and half long, more or lefs accurately 
elliptical, flat, entire or very obfeurely crenate, emargi- 
nate with a diminutive point ; fmooth and fhining 
above, opaque and minutely hairy beneath, with a' 
ftrong mid-rib; reticulated on both Ades with nume¬ 
rous veins. Flower-ftalks about the upper parts of the 
branches, half an inch or more in length, axillary, ge¬ 
nerally in pairs from one common fliort braCteated bafe, 
and each bearing one purplifh flower. Dr. Smith in Linn. 
Tranf. and Rees's Cyclopadia. 
POIRIE'R (Germain), a man of letters, and a member 
of the National (now Royal) Inftitute of France, was 
P O I 815 
born of refpe&able parents at Paris, on the 8th of Janu¬ 
ary, 1724. Avidity for information, and a retentive me¬ 
mory which preferved all that was entrufted to it, ina- 
nifefted themfelves at a very early age; infomuch that, 
at the conclufion of his fourteenth year, he had gone 
through the common courfe of juvenile ftudies. The 
contemplation of the number of diftinguifhed men 
who had iflued from the fociety of Saint Maur, ftirred up 
in him the fpark of emulation ; and he u'as encouraged 
to afpire to the reward of fimilar honours by a fimilar 
mode of life. He was accordingly received into that 
order; and, after the ufual forms, took the vows at Saint 
Faron de Meaux in 1740. His firft ftudies were necefla- 
rily theological, although thefe were not of a clafs the 
beft adapted to his tafte ; and, at the age of twenty, he 
handled the weapons of polemical divinity with know¬ 
ledge, and alfo with moderation. He was afterwards ap¬ 
pointed fecretary to the vifitor-general of his own order 
in France ; which gave him the opportunity of examining, 
in virtue of his office, the libraries and records of a vaft 
number of monafteries. The place which he now held 
was a fure ftep to higher honours among his brother 
Benedictines: but his ambition lay in a different di¬ 
rection ; and, on the termination of his duty, he pre¬ 
ferred the Atuation of Keeper of the Archives of the 
Abbey of St. Denis to the higher pofts in his order. 
Thefe archives contained many valuable records of 
general hiftory, independently of thofe that were con¬ 
fined to the annals of the church, but even thefe threw 
very confiderable light on the early ages of France. 
M. Poirier’s firft labour was to arrange and claflify this 
collection ; the rapid increafe of hiftorical knowledge 
was the natural confequence of fuch a purfuit; and in 
1762, he began to work at the continuation of a col¬ 
lection of the hiftorians of France, on a much more ex- 
tenfive fcale than that of Duchefne. M. Bouquet had 
been fo bold as to undertake this Herculean labour 
Angle-handed; and, at the time of his death, in 1754, 
he had left a tenth volume ready for publication: an 
eleventh alfo had been prepared for the prefs by one of 
his continuers, intended to contain the reign of Henry 
the Firft. It was at this point that Poirier ltept in, and, 
having re-modelled this laft epoch, held out a fair pro- 
mife of becoming a worthy and able conductor of the 
work. An attempt to make fome innovations in his 
own fociety, by means of the royal authority, inter¬ 
rupted his literary eafe, and rendered it unpleafant for 
him to aflociate with thofe who conceived themfelves 
injured by his endeavours. He accordingly removed to 
Alface; but was prevented from conveying with him the 
materials for his great work, which was confidered as 
the public property of the fociety. The collection was 
afterwards continued by M. Clement, the learned author 
of the work entitled “ Table Chronologique de l’Art de 
verifier les Dates,” who publifhed the twelfth and thir¬ 
teenth volumes. The revolutionary troubles fubfe- 
quently interrupted its progrefs, and the farther exten- 
(ion of this valuable body of hiftorical monuments has 
been fince confided to the Royal Inftitute. 
Poirier, who was little prepared for the more bufy 
feenes of life, foon regretted the quiet which he had lofl, 
and haftened to fecure a fimilar place of repofe in other 
quarters. In 1780, he was included in a fociety formed 
by the government to colleCl and arrange a feries of 
records, diplomatical, political, See. in the manner of 
Rymer’s Fcedera ; and a few years afterward, he became 
a member of the Academie des Belles Lettres, and read 
at the fittings of that body many very curious hiftorical 
trads. The anarchy of the revolution confined Poirier to 
the occupation, often vain, of attempting to refeue from 
flames and deftruCtion thofe literary treafures which had 
been the delight and folace of his advanced years. Many 
of the manuferipts and books which wereTaved in the 
devaluation of the religious houfes were preferved through 
his means ; and at St. Germain’s he feems to have rifked 
all 
