PHY 
The flowers are produced at the end of the branches, in 
loofe panicles; they are fmall, of an herbaceous colour at 
their firft appearance, but, before they fade, change to a 
brown or worn-out purple, and are cut into five parts to 
their bafe, where they are connected, and fall out with¬ 
out feparating. Thefe fegments are reflexed fo as to co¬ 
ver the germ, which is fituated under the flower, and af¬ 
terwards becomes a ffiort, turbinated, obtufe, angular 
fruit, which fplits in two parts when ripe, each contain¬ 
ing one feed, flat on the infide, convex on the outfide and 
* angular. Gsertner calls the fruit a capfule. It is infe¬ 
rior, cruftaceous, obovate, comprefled, two-celled, bi¬ 
partite: the cruft on the back and Tides is coriaceous and 
thick, but on the belly membranaceous, fubdiaphanous, 
and white. Seed in each cell one, obovate, fmooth, of a 
rufty-red colour, convex on one fide, flat on the other or 
very Tightly concave; fattened by the bafe. The feeds 
being of a different colour from the cruft that covers them, 
entirely diftinft and eafily feparating from it; Gsertner 
agrees with Adanfon in confidering the feeds as included 
in a pericarp, rather than as being naked, with Linnaeus. 
Native of the Canary iflands. Cultivated in 1699 by the 
duchefs of Beaufort. It flowers in June and July. 
Propagation and Culture. It is propagated by feeds, 
which muft be fown on a bed of freffi light earth towards 
the end of March, and the plants will come up by the be¬ 
ginning of May; when they are fit to tranfplant, they 
fhould be put into feparate pots, and placed in a fhady 
fituation until they have taken root; after which time 
they fhould be placed in a flickered fituation, where they 
may have the morning fun, and in the fummer will re¬ 
quire to be frequently watered. In winter they muft be 
fheltered from the froft, but require to have as much free 
air as poflible in mild weather. The fecond year, the 
plants will flower; if, therefore, in the fpring, fome of 
the plants are fliaken out of the pots and put into the full 
ground, they will perfeft their feeds much better than 
thofe which remain in the pots. As thefe plants feldoin 
continue in health above four or five years, it will be pro¬ 
per to raife a fupply of young plants to fucceed them. 
The plants retain their leaves all tlie year, which, being 
large and of a fhining green, make a handfome appear¬ 
ance in winter, in which the beauty of it confifts, for 
the flowers have none. See Acrostichum, Arum, and 
Marcgraavia. 
PHYL'LITIS, See Acrostichum, Asplenium, He- 
mionitis, Polypodium, Pteris, and Trichomanes. 
PHYLLOBO'LI A, f. [Greek.] A cuftom that pre¬ 
vailed among the ancients to drew flowers and leaves on 
the tombs of the dead. The Romans adopted this cuftom 
from the Greeks, and added likewife wool. 
The phyllobolia was alfo ufed on occafion of a viftory 
obtained at any of the public games; when not only the 
vigors, but likewife their parents, were ftrewed with 
flowers and leaves. 
PHYLLOCH'NOIS, f. in botany. See Ajuga. 
PHYLLO'DES, /i in botany. See Phrynium. 
PHYLLO'MA, j. [from (pvMov, a leaf, and Kupa, a 
fringe or border, alluding to the coloured toothed margin 
of the leaves.] A name given by Mr. Ker in Curtis’s 
Mag. xxxviii. 1585, to the Dracaena marginata, which he 
has eredted into a diftinft genus. See Drac^na, vol. vi. 
PHYL'LON, and PHYL'LUM. See Mercurialis. 
PHYL'LOS, in ancient geography, a country of the 
Peloponnefus, in Arcadia, according to Statius in his 
Thebaid, abounding in cattle. 
PHYL'LUS, a town of Theflaly, in which Strabo has 
placed a temple of the Phyllaean Jupiter. 
PHYLOBAS'ILES, f. [Greek.] Among the Athe¬ 
nians, magiftrates, who, with refpedt to particular tribes, 
had the fame office that the bajileus had with refpedt to 
the commonwealth. They were chofen out of the eupa- 
trida, or nobility ; had the care of public facrifices, and 
other divine worffiip peculiar to their refpedlive tribes 5 
PHY 307 
and kept their court in the portico called bajileion, and 
fometimes in the bucoleion. 
PHY'MA, f. [Gr. from tpvopai, to grow, as plants 
from the earth.] A term ufed by the ancients to denote 
almoft every fpecies of external and fuperficial tumour, 
ariiing without any obvious external injury. It compre¬ 
hends, therefore, boils, glandular enlargements, cutaneous 
tubercles, and even large inflamed puitules, or fmall ab¬ 
le efles. See the article Pathology, vol. xix. p. 231. 
PHYMO'SIS, or Phimosis. See Pathology, vol. 
xix. p. 231. 
PHYSA'LIS, /. [Greek, from (pvo-oc ., a bladder, an old 
name, applied by Linnseus to the Alkekengi of fome pre¬ 
ceding writers, the bladdery inflated calyx of which it 
well announces.] Winter Cherry; in botany, a genus 
of the clafs pentandria, order monogynia, natural order 
ofluridae, (folaneae, Juff.) Generic characters—Calyx: 
perianthium one-leafed, ventricofe, half-five-cleft, fmall, 
five-cornered, with acuminate fegments, permanent. 
Corolla one-petalled, wheel-fhaped ; tube very ffiort; 
border half-five-cleft, large, plaited; fegments wide, acute. 
See Botany Plate VIII. fig. 16. vol. iii. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments five, awl-fhaped, very fmall, converging. Antherae 
ereft, converging. Piftillum: germ roundilh ; ftyle fili¬ 
form, generally longer than the ftamens; ftigma blunt. 
Pericarpium : berry lubglobular, two-celled, fmall, within 
a very large, inflated, clofed, five-cornered, coloured 
calyx. Receptacle kidney-form, doubled. Seeds very 
many, kidney-form, comprefled.— EJfential Character. 
Corolla wheel-fhaped ; ftamina converging; berry within 
an inflated calyx, two-celled. There are twenty-four 
fpecies. 
I. Perennial. 
1. Phyfalis fomnifera, or cluttered winter cherry : Item 
fhrubby ; branches ftraight; flowers cluftered. This rifes 
with a fhrubby ftalk near three feet high, dividing into 
feveral branches, which grow eredt, and are covered with 
a woolly down. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, almoft three 
inches long, and an inch and a half broad in the middle, 
downy, and on ffiort petioles. Flowers fmall, of an her¬ 
baceous white colour, fitting very clofe to the branches ; 
and fucceeded by fmall berries nearly of the fame fize as 
the common winter cherry, and red when ripe. Accor¬ 
ding to Gsertner the calyx has ten angles, the alternate 
angles {landing out lefs. Berry fpherical, fcarlet, very 
fliining, pulpy. Seeds biggiffi, dotted, pale yellow. 
Fruit of Phyfalis, but flower of Atropa; herb of A. fru- 
tefeens, which it refembles fo much, that it can fcarcely be 
feparated from that genus. Native of Spain, Sicily, Can- 
dia. Barbary, Zanguebar on the coaft of Africa, and Mex¬ 
ico in America. Cultivated in 1596 by Gerard. It 
flowers in July and Auguft. 
2. Phyfalis ariftata, or bearded winter cherry: flera 
fhrubby; leaves oblong, entire, fmooth; branches, pe¬ 
tioles, and peduncles, lanuginofe; calycine toothlets 
awned. Native of the Canary iflands, where it was found 
by Maffon. Introduced in 1779. 
3. Phyfalis flexuofa : ftetn fhrubby, branches flexuofe, 
flowers cluftered. Habit and ftature of the firft fpecies; 
flowers in like manner fcattered at the axils of the leaves ; 
the calyxes alfo grow out, and involve the berry; but it 
differs manifeftly in having the flowers fmaller, the 
branches very flexuofe, and hence the leaves difpofed as it 
were in a double row, inferred into the outer angles of 
the flexure. Native of the Eaft Indies. It rifes to the 
height of five or fix feet; and flowers in July and Auguft ; 
but, unlefs the feafon is warm, the berries do not ripen in 
England. 
4. Phyfalis arborefeens, or fhrubby winter cherry: 
ftem fhrubby; leaves ovate, hairy; flowers folitary, corol¬ 
las revolute. Stalk fhrubby, ten or twelve feet high, 
dividing towards the top into feveral fmall branches, 
covered with a grey hairy bark. Leaves on the lower 
part 
