518 
P I S 
P I S 
flay or dellroy, becaufe it is ufed for the purpofe of intoxi- Flowers crimfon, the fize of the foregoing. Cavaniiles 
eating fifh, fo that they are eafily caught.] In botany, a deferibes the ftamens as perfedly diadelphous, ah excep- 
genus of the clafs diadelphia, order decandria, natural tion to the generic character j and this circumftanceadded 
order of papilionacese, or legtiminofae. Generic charac- to the abruptly pinnate leaves, and whole habit, make it 
tens—Calyx: perianthium one-leafed, bell-lhaped, five- jbroba’ble that the plant is a Robinia. See that article, 
toothed ; the upper teeth nearer. Corolla papilionaceous; Propagation and Culture. The two firft forts are 
banner afeending, emarginate: wings the length of the equally propagated by feeds, when they can be obtained 
banner; keel crefcent-fhaped, afeending. Stamina: fila- frefh from the countries where they naturally grow, for 
ments ten, uniting in a Iheath cloven above ; antherse in Europe thefd plants do rarely flower; there are plants 
oblong, incumbent. Piftillum : germ pedicelled, com- now in the Chelfea Garden which are more than thirty 
preiled, linear; rtyle filiform, afeending; Itigma acute, years old, and, if they had not been two or three times 
Pericarpium : legume pedicelled, linear, with four longi- ihorten'ed, would have been more than twenty-five feet 
tudinal membranaceous angles, one-celied, fe para ted by high, yet have not attempted to flower though they are 
doubled ifthmufes. Seeds fiome, fubcylindric.— Ejfenlial in perfect health. The feeds mull be Town upon a good 
Charatier. Stigma acute; legume winged four ways, hot-bed in the fpring; and, when the plants come up 
There are three fpecies. and are fit to tranfplant, they fhould be each planted in a 
i. Pifcidia erythrina, Jamaica dogwood tree, or fifii- fmall pot filled with light earth, and plunged into a hot- 
bean: leaflets obovate. This riles with a Item to the bed of tanner’s bark, and afterwards treated in the fame 
height of twenty-five feet or more, almoll as large as a way as hath been directed for Erythrina. 
man’s body, covered with a light-coloured fmooth bark, PISCI'NA, /. in antiquity, a large bafon in an open 
and fending out feveral branches at the top without public place or fquare, where the Roman youth learnt 
order. Leaves pinnate, with feven leaflets for the mod to fwim : and which was furrounded with a high wall, to 
part, two inches long, and one inch and a half btoad, prevent the calling of filth into it. The word is formed 
commonly oppolite. Flowers of a dirty white colour, from the Latin pijcis, filli ; becaufe men here imitated 
fucceeded by oblong pods, which! have four longitudinal fillies in fwimming, and becaufe fillies were adlually kept 
wings, and are jointed between the cells. in fome of thefe places. 
This tree is a native of Jamaica, and grows chiefly in Piscina, the perforated (lone ufually found in a niche 
the low-lands, (by way-fides, Jacqu. on dry calcareous on the right hand fide of the altar in ourancient churches 
hills, Swartz.) It flowers about May or June, (March and chapels, into which the water ufed in walhing the 
and April, Swartz,) and throws out all itsbloflfoms before hands of the officiating priells and other facred ablutions 
the appearance of the foliage, (or fometimes with it, were cad. 
Jacqu.) but the leaves fucceed pretty foon. The bark of Piscina proeatica was a pool or refervoir of water, 
the root (leaves and twigs, Jacqu.) is ufed for the fame near the court of Solomon’s Temple; fo called from the 
purpoles, anil with the lame effects, as the leaves and Greek <rrpoQa.Tijv, fheep; becaufe here they walked the 
branches of Surinam poifon, (Cytifus 2, 296.) it is cattle which were deliined for the lacrifice. By this pif- 
pounded, and mixed with the water, in fome deep and cina it was, that our Saviour wrought the miraculous 
convenient part of a river or creek, whence it may cure of the paralytic. Davilier obferves, there are Hill 
fpread itfelf; in a few minutes the fifh, that lie hid under remaining five arches of the portico, and part of the bafon 
the rocks or banks, rife to the furface, wdiere they float of this pilcina. 
as if they were dead ; moll of the large ones recover after PISCI'NA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Ultra, the 
a time, but the fmaller fry are dellroyed. The eel is not fee of a bilhop : eighteen miles fouth of Aquila, and 
intoxicated with common- dofes, though it is nffefted eighteen north of Sora. 
very lenfibly ; for, the moment the particles fpread wdiere PISCIO'TA, a town of Naples, in Principato Citra: 
it lies, it moves off with great agility. Jacquin obferves, fixteen miles well of Policallro. 
that this quality of intoxicating fifh is found in many PISCIP'ULA. See Piscidia erythrina. 
other American plants. This is generally conlidered as PIS'CIS AUSTRA'LIS. See Australis Piscis, vol. ii. 
one of the bell timber-trees in the illnnd. The wood is PIS'CIS VO'LANS, the P’lying-Fisii, in aftronomy, 
very hard and refinous ; and lafes almoll equally in or out a fmall conltellation of the fouthern hemifphere, un- 
of water. It is of a light brown colour, coarfe, crofs- known to the ancients, and invilible in thefe northern 
grained, and heavy. It makes excellent piles for wharfs, regions. 
The Hakes foon form a good live fence. The bark of PISCIV'OROUS, adj, [from the Lat. pijcis, a fifh, and 
the trunk is very rellringent; a decoflion of it flops the voro, to devour.] Eating fill), living on filh.—In lairds 
immoderate dilcharge of ulcers, efpecially when it is that are not carnivorous, the meat is fwallowed into the 
combined with the mangrove-bark ; it cures the mange crop, or into a kind of anteflomach obferved in pifcivorons 
in dogs ; and would probably anfwer well for tanning birds, where it is moillened and mollified by fome proper 
leather. It was cultivated in 1690, in the Royal Garden juice. Ray on the Creation. 
at Hampton Court. " PIS'CO, a town of Peru, in the intendency of Lima, 
2. Pifcidia Carthaginenfis, or Carthagena filh-bean : and formerly iituated on the coall of the South Sea, 
leaflets obovate. This differs from the firlt in the fliape but now a quarter of a league from it. The removal 
and confidence of the leaves, which are more oblong and happened on October 19, 1682, occafioned by fo violent 
of a firmer texture , in other refpedls they are very fimilar. an earthquake, that the fea retired half a league, and 
It is probably a variety only. Native of the Welt Indies, then returned with fuch violence, that it overflowed al- 
Jacquin found it on the coall in woods, near Carthagena; moll as much land beyond; its waters dellroyed the 
and remaiks, that it has the habit of the preceding, but wdiole town of Pilco, the ruins of wdiich are Hill vifible, 
that it is double the fize in all its parts. It feems never extending from the Ihore to the new town. The whole 
to have flowered in Europe. Plunder's fynonyme, which town conlifts of 300 families, moll of them Meftizoes, 
Linnteus attaches to the firll, Jacquin gives to the fecond Mulattoes, and Blacks; the whites being much the fmall- 
fpecies. ell number. The road of Pifco is capacious enough to 
3. Pifcidia punicea, or fcarlet filh-bean : leaves ab- hold a royal navy ; but open towards the north, though 
ruptly pinnate; leaflets obtufe. Native of South Ame- that is of very little confequence, the wind being rarely 
rica. It has borne flowers and feed in the garden of in that quarter, and never dangerous; whereas the road 
Madrid. The Item is llirubby, four or five feet high, is Iheltered from the ulual winds, namely, thole between 
Leaves alternate, of numerous uniform fmooth elliptical the fouth-weft and fouth-eaft. It is no miles fouth- 
leaflets, each about an inch long, glaucous beneath, fouth-eaft of Lima. Lat. 13. 55. S. Ion. 76. W. 
- PIS'CO, 
