456 
P I N 
Difficulty; time of diftrefs.—A good fure friend is abet¬ 
ter help at a pinch, than all the ftratagems of a man’s own 
wit. Bacon. —The devil helps his fervants for a feafon; 
but, when they once come to a pinch, he leaves ’em in the 
lurch. L'Eflrange. —-In mufic,a kind of grace proper forcer- 
tain inftruments, particularly the harpfichord ; it is formed 
by ftriking alternately the found of the written note with 
the found of the inferior note, and obferving to begin and 
finifti with the note which bears the pinch.—The difference 
between the pinch and trill is this, that the latter is (truck 
with the fuperior note, and the pinch with the inferior. 
Chambers. —It is now, and more properly, called a beat. 
PINCH'-FIST, or Pinch-penny,/. A mifer. 
PINCH'BECK, f [from the name of the inventor.] 
Mixed gold-coloured metal; it is an alloy of zink and 
.copper. 
PINCH'BECK, a village of Lincolnfiiire, on Bofton- 
Dyke, where there is a good church, built with (tone, but 
conliderably inclining from the perpendicular, from a 
fettling of the foundation. 
PIN'CHES, a town of South America, in the province 
of Quito : ioo miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Macas. 
PINCHI'NA, one of the Cordillera mountains, under 
the Equinoctial Line. 
PIN'CHING, /. The a£t of fqueezing between two 
bard bodies. A method of pruning, performed by nip¬ 
ping or breaking off the branches or fprigs of a plant, 
or tree, between the nails of two fingers. Molt gardeners 
bold, that pinching contributes to the abundance of the 
fruit, as well as of the branches ; and they fay that young 
flioots, thus lopped, are lefs apt to grow black and die 
than when cut with a pruning-knife. 
PINCHU'GA, a town of Rufiia, in the government of 
ToboUk. Lat. 58. 20. N. Ion. 96. 54. E. 
PINCK'NEY, an illand on the coaft of South Caro¬ 
lina.—Alfo, a diftrift, formerly of the upper country of 
South Carolina, now divided into the diftri&s of York, 
Chefter, Union, and Spartanburgh. 
PINCKNEY'A, f. [named by Michaux, in honour of 
one of his friends or patrons in America, probably Mr. 
Pinkney, once envoy to the Britifh court; but nothing 
is recorded on the fubjeCf, either in the Flora of Michaux, 
or in the account of his life, where this tree is men¬ 
tioned.] In botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, or¬ 
der monogynia, natural order rubiaceae, Jvff. Generic 
characters—Calyx : perianthium fuperior, in five deep 
acute fegments, one (rarely two) of which is dilated into 
a large coloured leaf, deciduous. Corolla: of one petal, 
funnel-Ihaped; tube thrice as long as the ordinary feg¬ 
ments of the calyx ; five-fided ; limb in five deep, revo¬ 
lute, obtufe, nearly-equal, fegments, half the length of 
the tube. Stamina: filaments five, awl-fhaped, equal, in- 
ferted into the tube near its bafe, (hotter than the limb; 
antherae oblong, incumbent. Piftillurn : germen inferior, 
roundifh-oblong; ftyle the length and form of the (ta- 
inens ; (tigma thickilh, in two obtufe lobes. Pericarpium : 
capfule globofe, (lightly compreffed, with a furrow at 
each fide, cartilaginous, thin, coated, of two cells and two 
valves, the partitions from the centre of each valve. 
Seeds numerous, horizontal, oval, depreffed, with a mem¬ 
branous orbicular wing. Receptacle central, angular.— 
Effential CharaSler. One fegment of the calyx very large, 
leafy; corolla funnel-fhaped, five-cleft; ftamens promi¬ 
nent ; ftigma bluntly two-lobed ; capfule inferior, of two 
cells and two valves; feeds numerous, winged. Only one 
fpecies. 
Pinckneya pubens, or downy pinckneya. It is a na¬ 
tive of the banks of the river St. Mary in Georgia, where 
it is ufed by the inhabitants to cure fevers, being allied 
to the Peruvian bark. It was brought into England by 
the late Mr. John Frafer in 1786. It is a greenhoule 
plant, floweringdn June and July. We are obliged to 
Mr. Frafer for fine Cpecimens in flower and feed. Others 
are found in the herbarium of the younger Linnaeus, 
which muft have been collected before Michaux vilited 
P I N 
America, and we fufpeCt they were fent by Bartrarn. 
This is a very handfome (hrub, or fmall tree, with oppo- 
fite downy branches. Leaves oppbfite, on downy (talks, 
oval, acute at each end, entire, a fpan long; naked, but 
roughi(h above; paler and rather downy beneath. Flow¬ 
ers an inch long, pale, (freaked with purple. Their molt 
confpicuous part is the large, oval, whitifli, downy, leafy, 
expanfton, which takes the place of one fegment of the 
calyx, as in the firffc and fecond fpecies of MusSjENda ; 
fee that article. The capfule is as big as a large goofe- 
berry, of a rigid, cartilaginous, but thin, texture, with a 
deciduous (kin. This genus is intermediate between Cin¬ 
chona and Mujfcenda, but feems fufliciently diltinCt in its 
fruit from the former; as it unqueftionably is from the 
latter, with which the habit molt agrees. The name of 
Bartramia was deftined for it, the original Bartramia be¬ 
ing a Triumfetta; but there is now a very fine and diftinCt 
genus of modes eltabliflied under this appellation. Mi¬ 
chaux Boreal. Amer. i. 103. 
PINCKNEYVIL'LE, a pod town of South Carolina, 
and capital of Union diftriCt, on the fouth-weft fide of 
Broad river, at the mouth of Pacolet, containing a hand¬ 
fome workhoufe, a gaol, and a few compaCt houfes : feven- 
ty-five miles north-weft of Columbia. 
PIN'COS, a town of Peru, in the diocefe of Lima: fif¬ 
teen miles fouth of Xauxa. 
PIN'CUM, a town of Moefia fuperior, now Gradifca. 
PINCZES'TI, a town of European Turkey, in Mol¬ 
davia: twenty-eight miles fouth-weft of Jafly. 
PIN'DA, a feaport town of the kingdom of Congo, on 
the left fide of the Zaire : 125 miles weft-fouth-well of Sr. 
Salvador. 
PIN'DA, a river of Africa, which runs into the Indian 
Sea in lat. 13.28. S. 
PIN'DA SHO'AL, a (hoal in the Indian Sea, near the 
coaft of Africa : lat. 14. S. 
PIND'ALA, a town of Hindooftan, in Tellingana: 
fifteen miles fouth of Warangole. 
PINDAMA'HA, a town of Brazil, in the government 
of St. Paul: eighty miles north-north-eaft of Sr. Paul. 
PINDAR, the raoft famous lyric poet of ancient 
Greece, was a native of Cynofcephalas, near Thebes, in 
Bceotia. The time of his birth is uncertain ; but he was 
at the height of his reputation at the tera of the expedi¬ 
tion of Xerxes, B. C. 480. He was the difciple in poetry 
of Lafus of Hermione, and of Mry.tis, the tutorefs of 
Corinna; but was principally indebted to his own 
genius for his peculiar excellencies. Of the particulars 
-of his life but little is known, and even that little has 
been in fome meafure anticipated under our article 
Music, vol. xvi. p. 358,9. He appears to have courted 
the great by encomiaftic verfes, which were at the fervice 
of thofe who paid mod liberally for them. Theron of 
Agrigentum and Hiero of Syracufe were two of his great 
patrons, and are commemorated in his poems. He cele¬ 
brated the city of Athens in a manner that excited the 
difpleafure of his countrymen the Thebans, who on that 
account impofed a fine upon him, which the Athenians 
not only doubly repaid him, but eredted a ftatue to his 
honour. His reputation was fo great, that we find he 
was rewarded in the public affemblies of Greece with 
the prize, in preference to every other competitor; and, 
as the conquerors at Olympia were the fubjedts of his 
compofitions, the poet was courted by ftatefmen and 
princes. His hymns and paeans were repeated before the 
moll crowded aflemblies in the temples of Greece; and 
the prieftefs of Delphi declared that it was the will of 
Apollo that her chief poet (liould receive half of all the 
firft-fruit offerings that were annually heaped on his 
altars. This was not the only public honour which he 
received ; after his death he was honoured with every mark 
of refpedt, even to adoration. His ftatue was eredted at 
Thebes, in the public place where the games were exhibit¬ 
ed ; and, fix centuries after, it was viewed with the ut- 
moft fenfations of pleasure and admiration by the geogra- 
