527 
P I S 
much wet in winter; and in the fpring, before the plants 
begin to (hoot, they muft be tranfplanted each into a 
feparate fmall pot; and, if they are plunged into a very 
moderate hot-bed, it will forward their putting out new 
roots; but, as foon as they begin to (hoot, they mull be 
gradually hardened, and placed abroad again. They 
may be kept in pots three or four years till they have 
got ftrength, during which time they (liould be fheltered 
in winter; and afterwards they may be turned out of the 
pots, and planted in the full ground, fqme againft high 
walls to a warm afpeCl, and others in a fheltered fituation, 
where they will bear the cold of our ordinary winters 
very well, but in fevere frofts they are often deftroyed. 
The trees flower and produce fruit in England, but the 
fummers are not warm enough to ripen the nuts. 
The turpentine-tree may be treated in the fame man¬ 
ner, and is as hardy. There was a tree of this fort grow¬ 
ing in the garden of the bifliop of London at Fulham, 
againft a wall, which was planted there in biftiop Comp¬ 
ton’s time, and endured the winters without cover: and 
fome trees of this fort which were planted in the open 
air at Goodwood in Sulfex, furvived feveral winters 
without any proteClion. 
The maftic-tree is generally propagated by laying down 
the young branches, which, if properly managed, will 
put out roots in one year, and may then be cut off from 
the old plants, and each tranfplanted into feparate fmall 
pots. Thefe muft be fheltered in winter, and in fummer 
placed abroad in a fheltered fituation, and treated in the 
fame way as other hardy kinds of green-houfe plants. It 
may alfo be propagated by feeds, in the fame way as the 
others ; but, if the feeds are not taken from trees grow¬ 
ing in the neighbourhood of the male, they will not 
grow ; and, if they are kept out of the ground till fpring, 
the plants rarely appear till the fpring following. When 
thefe plants have obtained ftrength, fome of them may 
be turned out of the pots, and planted againft warm walls; 
where, if their branches are trained againft the walls, 
they will endure the ordinary winters very well, and with 
a little fhelter in fevere winters they may be preferved. 
See Bursera, Hamamelis, Royena, and Staphylea. 
PISTA'CIO-VI'TEX. See Vitex. 
PISTAKE'TI, a town of the principality of Georgia, 
in the province of Carduel: forty miles fouth-fouth-weft 
of Teflis. 
PIS'TAZITE, f. in mineralogy. Seethe article Py- 
ROMACHUS. 
PIS'TE, f. [French.] The track or tread a horfeman 
makes upon the ground he goes over. 
PIS'TIA, f. [fo named by Linnseus from the Gr. 
a channel, or watering-place ; becaufe it inhabits 
pools and rivers.] In botany, a genus of the clafs mona- 
delphia, order oCtandria, (gynandria, hexandria, Linn.) 
natural order of mifcellanete, (hydrocharides, Juff.) Ge¬ 
neric characters—Calyx : none. Corolla : one-petalled, 
unequal, ereft, permanent; tube fhort, clofely embracing 
the germ; border cordate-roundifh, widened, acuminate, 
entire, contracted in the middle on both fides by a lateral 
plait bent inwards. Stamina : filament round, thick, 
blunt, fpringing almoft perpendicularly from the centre 
of the border of the corolla, hanging over the piftil, fur- 
rounded at the bafe by a membranaceous difk, augment¬ 
ed below on both fides by a fringe hanging down, the 
width of the antherte; antherse fix to eight, globular, 
placed in a ring on the margin of the filament at the top : 
three to eight, but generally three. Piftillum: germ 
fubovate, twice as long as the tube of the corolla, fa- 
ftened to the back of the petal by a longitudinal thickened 
line extending to the very origin of the filament; ftyle 
thick, ereCl, fhorter than the filament; ftigma blunt, 
fubpeltate. Pericarpium: capfule ovate, comprefled, one- 
celled. Seeds very many, oblong, deprefled at the top 
and there umbilicated w’ith a dot, fattened horizontally 
to the back of the capfule where it adheres to the corolla. 
P l S 
—Ejjential Char after. Calyx none; corolla one petalled, 
tongue-fhaped, entire; antherae fix or eight, placed on 
the filament; ftyle one; capfule one-celled, at the bottom 
of the corolla. But one fpecies. 
i. Piftia ftratiotes. This is a ftemlefs, floating, elegant, 
plant. Roots many, a foot and a half long, putting forth 
Ample fibres from their circumference, an inch and a 
half in length, numerous, notill reprefenting the leaves 
of Ranunculus aquaticus. Other capillary fibres, fhorter 
and in clufters, come out at the bafe of the leaves and the 
origin of the principal roots. Leaves various in number 
and fize according to the age of the plant; whilft the 
plant is in vigour about twenty, fpread out in a circle or 
like a rofe, afoot in diameter; they are thick, fpongy, a 
little fucculenr, and therefore well adapted for floating; 
but on the back, from a thicker very large and fubovate 
area theypufh forth afcending, very thick, and extremely 
prominent, nerves. According to Swartz, the central 
leaves are fmaller than the outer ones; the inmoftereCl, 
convoluted, tomentofe. Runners are produced from the 
root under the leaves; they are long, and terminated by 
other fmaller plants. The corolla of Jacquin is called by 
him a fpathe. Flowers whitifh, inodorous, axillary, foli- 
tary, and ereCl, on a fhort peduncle. The corolla fhri- 
vels up more or lefs, and burfts as the germ increafes. 
Adanfon in his Hiflory of Senegal affirms, that the pri¬ 
mary root is fixed ftrongly into the bank. Jacquin did 
not attend to this circumttance, but remarks, that in tak¬ 
ing the plants out of the water, he never found any re¬ 
finance : he fuggefts, however, that the young plants may 
be fixed at firlt, and afterwards break loofe. Native of 
Afia, Africa, South America, and the Weft-India iflands, 
in ftagnant waters and quiet dreams ; flowering in April. 
PISTI'CCIO, a town of Naples, in Bafilicata : twelve 
miles from Turfi. 
PIS'TIL, [ pijiillum, Lat.] The female organ of gene¬ 
ration in plants. It is one of thofe eflential parts of the 
fructification, neceflary to the production of feeds. It is 
either one or feveral; fituated in the centre of the flower, 
within the ftamens, if the latter be, as ufual, in the fame 
flower; when in a feparate one, the piftils are not always 
central. See the article Botany, vol.iii. p. 24.9. But 
the idea of Linnseus, of their originating from the pith, 
and the ftamens from the wood, is refuted by anatomical 
obfervation, as well as by more correCl physiological en¬ 
quiries. 
PIS'FILS’ FI'ORD, oiTnlet, a bay on the north coaft 
of Iceland. 
PIS'TIL RHAIA'DER. See Rhaiader. 
PISTILLA'TION, /. [ pijiillum , Lat.] The aft of 
pounding in a mortar.—The bell diamonds we have arc 
comminuble, and fo far from breaking hammers, that they 
fubmit unto piftillation, and refill not an ordinary peftle. 
Brown's Vulg. Err. 
PISTOC'CHI (Francefe-Antonio), of Bologna, one 
of the greateft ftage-fingers of the feventeenth century, 
began to flourifli, both as a performer and compofer, 
about the year 1679. Fie was retained fome time at the 
court of the margrave of Brandenburgh as maeftro di 
capella; but late in life, after eftablifliing a fchool of 
finging at Bologna, which was afterwards continued by 
his difciple Bernacchi, he retired to a monaftery, where 
he ended his days. 
Dr. Burney fays, “ An oratorio of his compofition, 
which we were fo fortunate as to find in Italy, called 
Maria Virgine aclolorata, has more merit of expreflion, 
and elegance of melody, than any vocal mufic of the fame 
century. There is no date to this compofition ; but by 
the fimplicity of the ftyle it feems to have been produced 
about the end of the 17th century, at which time recita¬ 
tive, freed from formal clofes, and in pofleflion of all 
its true forms, was fometimes, extremely pathetic and 
dramatic. This oratorio has neither overture nor cho¬ 
rus. The interlocutors are, an Angel, the Virgin Mary, 
Mary 
