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the following fummer. They may be placed in court¬ 
yards, or other places near the habitation, when they are 
in beauty ; and, being mixed with other flowers, will be 
highly ornamental. 
PHLYACOGRA'PHIA., /. [from the Gr. <p\vu&v, 
to trifle.] Among the ancients, a merry and burlefque 
imitation of lome grave and ferious piece; particularly a 
tragedy traveftied into a comedy. The phlyacographia 
was the fame thing with the hilarodia, or hilaro-tragedy. 
Th.e parodies which have been made of fome parts of 
the belt poets, as the Virgil Travefly of Scarron and Cot¬ 
ton ; the Homer burlefqued ; the Rival Queens of Cibber, 
from the Rival Queens of Lee ; and fome pieces of operas, 
themufic of which is applied to low and ridiculous words, 
are comprehended under the notion of phlyacographia. 
PHLYCTJE'NZE, or Phlyst^n^:, f. [from (pXvu, I 
am hot.] Seem to havefignified, in the writings of the 
ancients, all fmall inflamed elevations of the fkin, con¬ 
taining a fluid, fuch as puftules, veficles, blains, &c. 
By the tranflators of the Greek writers, the term is ge¬ 
nerally rendered pujhiles. Phly 6 lan.ce are now, however, 
generally confidered to be veficles, that is, fmall elevations 
of the cuticle, containing a watery fluid, and not pus. 
The word is alfo ufed to denote little ulcerous veficles, 
arifing fometimes on the adnata, and fometimes on the 
cornea of the eye, like fo many little bladders full of 
water ; they are popularly called blijlers in the eyes. 
PHLY'SIS,/. the whitlow'. See the article Pathology, 
vol. xix. p. 233, 4. 
PHLYZA'CIUM, f. [from the Gr. <p\vu, or to 
be hot, or to bubble.] A hot and inflamed puftule on the 
fkin. (See Celfus, De Medecina, lib. v. cap. 28. § 15.) 
In attempting to eftablifli a more definite nomenclature 
for the difeafed appearances of the fkin, Or. Willan ap¬ 
propriated the term phlyzacium to one of four varieties 
of pultules, and defined it in thefe words : “ A pultule 
commonly of a large fize, raifed on a hard circular bafe, 
of a vivid red colour, and fucceeded by a thick, hard, 
dark-coloured fcab.” See Willan on Dif. of the Skin, p. 5 . 
and Bateman’s Synopfis of Cutan. Difeafes, p. xxi. 
PHOB'EROS,/. [<po/ 3 f^o;, Gr. formidable, in allufion 
to the thorns. Loureir. Cochinch. 317.] In botany, a ge¬ 
nus of the clafs icofandria, order monogynia. Generic 
characters—Calyx : perianthium inferior, permanent, in 
ten ovate, concave, fpreading, fegments 5 five alternate 
ones twice the fize of the others. Corolla : none. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments near 100, capillary, inferted into the 
bafe of the calyx, longer than its fegments; antherse very 
fmall, nearly ovate. Piftillum : germen fuperior, round- 
iih, ftyle thick, the length of the ftamens; ftigma thick- 
ifli. Pericarpium : berry ovate, flelhy, fmooth, of one 
cell. Seeds about four, nearly ovate.— EJfential Charac¬ 
ter. Calyx inferior, in ten fegments ; corolla none ; berry 
of one cell, with about four feeds. 
1. Phoberos Cochinchinenfis; whole Item prickly; 
flower-ftalks terminal. Native of Cochinchina, where it 
forms impervious hedges. Stem flirubby, woody, ten 
feet high, ereCt, covered with long, ftraight, awl-fhaped, 
axillary, folitary prickles. Leaves alternate, ovate, flat, 
hard, fmooth, lomewhat ferrated. Stalks terminal, each 
bearing many white flowers. 
2. Phoberos Chinenfis: lower branches prickly, barren; 
upper unarmed, flowering. Native of China, where 
hedges are made of it, like the foregoing. Stem fhrubby, 
woody, erect, eight feet high. Branches fpreading; the 
lower ones only armed with long, llraight, moltly folitary, 
prickles. Leaves partly fcattered, partly oppofite, 
italked, ovate, entire, flat, fmooth. Flowers pale, many 
together, on lateral ftalks, from the upper branches. 
Berry flefhy, fmall, ovate, with few feeds in its foli¬ 
tary cell. 
Such is Loureiro’s account, the only information we 
have refpeCting thefe plants. He cites under the 2d, 
Oxyacantha Javanica ; Rumph. Amboin. auftar. 39. t. 19. 
f. 3. This author fpeaks of the fruit as unwholefome, 
P H O 
caufing vertigo; and the wounds caufed by the thorns 
are faid to be dangerous. The plant ferves for hedges 
in Java. Rumphius mentions a fpecies or variety with 
longer fpines, which makes formidable walking-flicks for 
thofe who go abroad by night. 
PHOBE' FOR, one of the fons of Somnus, and his prin¬ 
cipal minifter. His office was to aflame the fliape of fer- 
pents and wild beafts, to infpire “ terror” in the minds 
of men, as his name intimates (1 poGta). The other two 
miniflers of Somnus were Phantafia and Morpheus. Ovid. 
Met. xi. 640. 
PHO'BOS, [Greek.] Fear, in mythology, was perfo- 
nified by the Greeks, and reprelented with the head of 
a lion. See Fear, vol. vii. 
PHO'CA,/. the Seal; in zoology, a genus of the clafs 
mammalia, order ferae. Generic characters—Fore-teeth 
acute; fix upper parallel, the outer ones larger; lower 
four parallel, diftinct, equal, and rather obtufe; theca- 
nine tuflcs are twice as long, acute, robult, folitary ; the 
upper remote from the fore-teeth, the lower form the 
grinders; there are fix to ten grinders, which are narrow 
and tricufpidate. 
This is a dirty quarrelfome tribe, eafily tamed, and po¬ 
lygamous 5 tjre flefh is fucculent, tender, and fat; the fkin 
is ufeful, and the oil valuable. The animals inhabit and 
fwim under water; they crawl on land with difficulty, be- 
caufe of their retraced fore feet and united hind feet; 
they feed on fifti and marine productions, and fwallow 
ftones to prevent hunger by dirtending the ftomach. 
There are twenty-three fpecies, befides varieties. 
1. Phoca urfina, the urfine feal, or fea-bear : the fpecific 
character of this is, head with external ears. It inhabits 
Kamtfchatka, New Zealand, and the adjacent iflands; 
fwims impetuoufly in large families ; copulates on-fhore; 
is fearlefs, biting at whatever is thrown at it; the old 
ones live by themfelves, and grow very fat; each has a 
peculiar ftone for its bed, which it never deferts ; the 
males fight fiercely for their females and ftations; their 
combat is Angle and fair, two never fighting againlt one ; 
when grieved, it fheds tears abundantly. 
This is one of the larger feals, growing to the length 
of eight feet, and weighing feven or eight hundred pounds. 
The female is much lefs. Though they lie by thoufands 
on the (bore, each family keeps itfelf feparate from the 
reft; and is fometimes fo numerous as to amount to above 
an hundred. Urfine feals are feen from June to Septem¬ 
ber, during which time they breed and educate their 
young. In September they quit their ftations on the 
iflands, and return, fome to the Afiatic, and fome to the 
American, fhore; but are generally confined to a fpace in 
thofe feas between lat. 50 0 and 56°. They are fo tena¬ 
cious of life, as to live a fortnight after receiving fuch 
wounds as would inftantly deftroy almoft any other 
animal. 
The length of the fore legs is twenty-four inches; the 
feet are formed with toes, as thofe of other animals, but 
are covered with a naked fkin, having only the rudiments 
of nails on five latent toes; the hind legs are twenty-two 
inches long, fixed to the body, but capable of being 
brought forward, fo that the animal can ufe them to 
fcratch its head; thefe feet are divided each into five 
toes, connected with a great web a foot broad; the tail 
is only two inches long. The hair is long and rough, 
with a foft down of a bay colour beneath ; the hair on 
the neck of the old males ftands ereCt. The general co¬ 
lour of thefe animals is black, but the hair of the old ones 
is tipt with grey : the females are cinereous. The fat 
and flefh of the old males is very naufeous, but that of 
the females refembles lamb : the young ones, roafted, are 
as good as fucking pigs. 
This fpecies is extremely numerous about the iflands 
of St. Paul and Amfterdam, in the Indian Ocean. At 
the latter place, fir George Staunton informs us, “they 
are found in greater numbers in the fummer than in the 
winter, when they generally keep in deep water and un- 
3 der 
