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rhlnutenefs of the feveral parts of the flower of this plant, that it has been generally fuppofed, by botanifts, to have no flower at all ; the globule at the root of the leaves having been ufually efteemed merely a capfule for the feeds. Tue pedicles, on which thefe globules ftand, are not more than a twelfth of an inch long; and it has ufually, at its bafe, two or three fmall leaves of the fame fhape with the other leaves of the plant. The globules ufually ftand fingly at the bottom of each leaf. The ftamina of the flowers, examined by the microfcope, appear compofed of a fine ten- der membrane, indnfing a number of fmall round bodies ; and the whole aftuming a conic form : thefe put into a drop of water before the microfcope, received the humidity into them, and fwelled into the figure of an oblong pearl, and foon after burft'ing open tranfverfely, they difcharged their grains of fine powder with an elaftic force : thefe grains, which are the globules of the farina, are regularly round and rough on the furface ; they fwell on lying in the water, but never burft. The piftils, on being put into water, loofe their folded and wrinkled figure, and fwell into a fort of bladder : thefe piftils finally become each a perfect feed, which is rounded at the bottom, and terminates in a point at the top, and of a fomewhat yeliowifh white colour. The feeds of the pilularia fend up fingle leaves of the fhape of thofe which afterwards appear on the whole plant ; and the herb is therefore of the order of the mmocstykdones ; and, according to the opinion of Mr. Juffieu, approaches more to the nature of the ferns than to any other clafs of plants, tho' fo widely different from them in the maimer of growth : he is for allotting it a place, however, next the ferns* and that for the following reafons :
1. Becaufe the pilularia imitates the difpofition and arrange- ment of the branches of many of the ferns., tho* in fo ex- tremely different a form, creeping over the ground with its horizontal roots, in the manner of the common female _/iv«, and like it, having its leaves and branches placed in an alter- nate manner.
2. Becaufe the young leaves of the pilularia are enveloped like thofe of the ferns, with a fort of down, and are rolled up in the fame manner, in a fpiral form ; from which they gra- dually expand.
3. Becaufe the taffe is the fame with that of the ferns, vif- cous, with a gentle aftriciion.
4. Becaufe the fmell of the leaves, when bruifed, is wholly the fame with that of fern ; and, finally, becaufe the fum- mits of the ftamina, when nicely examined, appear to have a great analogy with fome parts of the fructifications of the
ferns. Memoirs Acad. Scien. 1739. P1MIENTA, in botany, the Jamaica pepper-tree ; the charac- ters of which are thefe: Its trunk is as thick as one's thigh, rifing ftreight about 30 feet high, covered with an extremely polifhed or fmooth /kin, of a grey colour, and branched out on every hand ; having the ends of its twigs fet with leaves of feveral fizes ; the largeft being four or five inches long, two or three broad in the middle, where broadeft ; whence it decreafes to both extremes, ending in a point, fmooth, thin, fhining, without any incifures, of a deep green colour, and ftanding on inch-long foot ftalks ; when bruifed very odoriferous, and in all tilings like the leaves of a bay- tree. The ends of the twigs are branched into bunches of flowers, each footllalk fuftaining a flower made up of four herbaceous pale-green petala, bowed back, or reflected down- wards ; within which are many ftamina of the fame colour. Thefe are followed by a bunch of crowned or umbilicated ber- ries, (the crown being made up of four fmall foliola or leaves) which are bigger, when ripe, than juniper-berries, at firft when fmall, greenifh; but when ripe they are black, fmooth, and fhining, containing in a moift, green, aromatic, and biting pulp, two large acini, or feeds, fcparated by a mem- brane lying between them, each whereof is a hemifpherc, and both joined make a globe or fpherical acinus ; whence Clufius makes it one feed, divifible into two parts. It grows on the hilly parts of Jamaica, and is much cultivated ■there ; becaufe of the great profit from the cured fruit fent in great quantities yearly into Europe.
It flowers in June, July, and Auguft, fooner or later, ac- cording to its htuation and the different feafons for rain ; and after it flowers, the fruit foon ripens.
There is little difficulty in curing and prefcrving this fruit for ufe, which is done thus : the Negroes climb the trees and pull oft the twigs with the unripe green fruit, and after- wards carefully feparate the fruit from the twigs, leaves, and ripe berries; which done, they expofe them to the fun from its rifing to felting, for many days, fpreading them thin en cloaths, turning them now and then, and carefully avoiding the dews. By this management they become a little rugous or wrinkled, dry, and from a green change to a brown co lour, and then they are fit for the market. The ripe berries are very carefully feparated from thofe to be cured j becaufe their wet and plenteous pulp renders them unfit for cure.
It is accounted the beft and moft temperate, mild and inno- cent, of common fpices, and fit to come, into greater ufe, and to gain more gruund than it hath yet done. It furpafles
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moft of the Eaft Indian aromatics in promoting the digef- tionof meat, attenuating, tough humors, moderately heating ftrengthening the ftomach, expelling wind, and doing thofe friendly offices to the bowels we generally expect from fpices Clufius takes it to be the garyophyllon of Pliny ; and by others it is. fuppofed to be the omentum of the antients ; but 'tis not likely that it was known to the antients, not beino- known to grow in the Eaft, but Weft Indies ; whence it was brought to England, and fent to Clufius, who firft defcribed and fibr- ed it, giving it the name of amomttm quorundant, or caryopM- ImPlimi. Phil. Tranf N° 192. See the article Piper.
PIMP -tenure, a kind of tenure mentioned in our old writer's
Willielmus Hoppefhort, Tenet dimidiam Virgatam terra, per fervitium cujledienili fex Damifcllos fcil. Mcretrices, ad ufum Damirn Regis. 12 Ed. 1. Blount's Ten. 39.
PIMPERNELL, pimpinella, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the charaders of which are thefe : The flower con- fifts of one petal, which is of a rotated form, and is deeply divided into four fegments, and contains a vaft number of ftamina, or a fimbriated ftyle. The cup finally becomes a fruit ufually of a quadrangular figure, and pointed at each end : this is fometimes divided into two cells, fometimes it confifts only of one ; and it contains numerous feeds, ufually of a longiih figure. '
The fpecies of pimpinella, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : !. The common greater pimpinella, called Bumet fixifrage; and by moft authors pimpinella fmgmfirba major
2. The great rigid very tsWpimpine.la, with auriculated leaves'
3. The great Spanifh pimpinelh, with a pale-red fpike The great Spanifh pimpinella, with cluf rered flowers. c ' The American pimpinella, with long red fpikes. 6. The grearift American pimpinella, with white fpiked flowers 7 The fweet agrimony-leaved pimpinella. 8. The fmaller' hairy tim pinella. 9. 1 he fmall fmooth pimpinella. 1 o. The (mall fceiitlefs pimpinella. 11. I he fmaller pimpinella, with large thick feeds And 12. The prickly evergreen pimpinella, called by fome authors potmum, and by others calcUctim. Tourn. Inft. p. i 57 The feeds of this plant are warm, carminative, and' difcu- tient: they are given with fuccefs in colics and flatulencies and in fuppreffions of urine. The leaves and roots alfo poffefs the fame virtues ; and when the diuretic property only is expected from it, the root alone frefh taken up, cut'fmall and boiled in water, is the beft. The decoflion is to be drank in large draughts, and often repeated.
i<«< Pimpernel?., anagaliis, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower confifts of one leaf, and is rotated and divided into feveral fegments. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail, to the lower part of the flower • this after wards becomes a fhelly fruit, of nearly a globular figure • which, when ripe, divides tranfverfely into two parts and' difcovcrs a number of angular feeds affixed to a placenta' The fpecies of anagaliis, enumerated by authors, are' thefe • I. The common red flowered anagaliis. 2. The larger leaved red-flowered anagaliis, with leaves growing four at 1 a joint 3. The common blue-flowered anagaliis. 4. The blue-flow- ered anagaliis, with two or three leaves at every joint c" The ferrugineous flowered anagaliis. 6. The dufky purple- flowered anagaliis. 7. The pale red-flowered anagaliis 8 The white-flowered anagaliis. 9. The broad-leaved Spanifh anagaliis, with large blue flowers. 10. The round-leaved Portugal anagaliis. 1 1 . The broad-leaved Portugal anazallis with a fmall flower 12. The great toad-flax-lea?ed anagall/s of Portugal. 13 The narrower-leaved anagaliis of Portu- gal. 14 rhe fmalleft anagaliis. 15. The fmall French lea, round-leaved anagaliis.
Authors name, befide thefe, feveral other plants anagaliis amia- tna, the bnoklime, &c. but thefe are properly either of the genus of the veronica, or that of the famdus. Tourn Inft p. 142. See the article Samolus, lie.
PIMP1LIM, in botany, a name by which feme authors have called the plant which produces the long pepper, ufed in me- dicine. Pifi, Mant. 182.
PIMPINELLA. SeePiMPERNFLL, fupra.
PIMPLE, in medicine, a fmall puftule arifing on the face By mixing equal quantities of the juice of houfe-leek, ' lidum minus, palled through paper, and of fpirit of wine reflified by itfelf, a white coagulum of a very volatile nature is form- ed, which Dr. Burghart commends for curing pimples of the face; and fays, that the thin liquor feparated from it, with fugar-candy ,s an excellent remedy for thick vifcid phlegm in the breaft. Satyr. Silefiac. Spec. 4. Ob. 2.
PINACOTHECA, among the antients, a piae'e where piflures, itatues, and other cunofities were kept. Pitijc in voc
PINACIA, m»m» among the Athenians, tablets of Draft, where- on the names of all the perfons in each tribe duly qualified, and willing to be judges or fenators of the Areopagus, being feverally written, they were cart into a veffel provided on purpofe; and into another veffel were caft the fame number o beans_an hundred of which were white, and all the reft black. 1 hen the names of the candidates and the beans were drawn, one by one ; and thofe whofe names were drawn out together with the white beans, were received in- to the lenate. See the article Pbom'Leuma
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