Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/204

 PEA

caufes the bar-mafter to arrefl the mine. Houghton's compl. Miner in the Explan. of the Terms.

PAYING, in the fca language. When the feams of a fhip are laid over with a coat of hot pitch, it is called paying her ; and when this is done with canvas, parcelling. Alfo when after fhe is graved, and her foil burned off, a new coat of tallow and foap, or one of train oil, rofin and brimftone, boiled together, is put on her; that is called paying of a flip. They fay alfo fometimes, when in tacking about, a fhip's fails 'being back flayed, fall all flat againft the mafts and fhrouds, Jhe is paid.

PEA, pifum, in botany. See PisUM.

Cbick-^EA. See the articleCiCER.

PEACH, pe>fica, in botany. SeePERSiCA.

The curious in fruits account twenty-eight forts of peaches, but many of them feem very trifling diffractions. The fine- nefs of this fruit, in general, depends on the firmnefs of the pulp, the delicacy of the flavour, and the thinnefs of the fkin. A fine peach mould be of a fine deep red next the fun, and of a pale whitifh hue next the wall; and the pulp fhould be of a yellowifli caff, and very juicy ; and the ftone fhould be fmall, tho' the fruit in general be large. The varieties of the peach are produced like thofe of the finer flowers, by fowing the feeds ; and tho' many raifed this way will be of little value, as is alfo the cafe in flowers, yet probably among a parcel of ftones, faved from the finer kinds of peaches, there would'be fome new kinds produced ; which, as they were raifed here, would be eafily kept up in their perfection ; which is not to be expeCted of thofe brought from other countries.

The befl method of faving the ftones is, to let fome of the fineft peaches of the belt kinds hang till they drop of them- felves from the tree, and then the ftones fhould be immediate- ly planted on a bed of light rich earth, planting them four inches deep in the earth, and at about fix inches afunder. The beds fhould be covered, to preferve them in the winter ; and in fpring, when the trees come up, they muft be cleared of weeds, and^ well watered. The next fpring they fhould be carefully taken up, and planted in the nurfery, at greater diftances; and after two or three years Handing here, they may be removed to the places where they are to remain ; or they may at that time, when the condition of their fruit is known, be grafted on other flocks, which is the common Way now ufed to propagate thefe trees. The common method of propagating the peach is, by graft- ing. In order to this, fome good flocks fhould be provided, which fhould be of the mufcle, or white pear-plum. When thefe flocks are two or three years old, they will be ftrong enough to bud ; and the common feafon for doing this is about Midfummer. The buds fhould be chofen from a heal- thy tree, which produces a great deal of fruit: they mult be taken from the trees either in a cloudy day, or elfe in the morning or evening, when the fun has not much power : they mould be then inoculated on the ftocks as foon as pof- fible, and the ftocks treated with the ufual care afterwards. See Inoculation.

When thefe are to be tranfplanted where they are to remain, the moft proper foil for them is, a light rich pafture-land, taken up with the turf, and rotted together, before it is to be ufed ; and the borders to be made with this cannot be too wide, and ought to be railed five or fix inches above the le- vel of the ground ; or if the foil be moift, more than that. They mult be tranfplanted in autumn, as foon as the leaves are fallen off; and fhould never be fet at lefs than fourteen feet diftance from one another. The heads of the trees are then to be raifed up againft the walls, to keep the roots from being moved by the wind ; and they fhould be watered at times, with a nofe on the watering pot, and the water fprink- led all over them. In the middle of May the new moots are to be nailed to the wall, training them horizontally ; and the foreright fhoots are to be rubbed off: in October the new branches fhould be pruned, fhortening them according to the ftrength of the tree ; if ftrong, they may be left eight inches Jong ; »if weak, they fhould only be left five ; and the fame care is to be taken of them for the fucceeding years. There are two general rules always to be obferved in the pruning of peach and neCrarine trees, which are, x. Always to have enough bearing wood. And 2. Not to lay in the branches too clofe to one another. All peach trees produce their fruit from .the young wood either of the fame, or at the moft, of the former years fhoot ; for this reafon the branches are to be fo pruned, as to encourage them to throw out new fhoots in every part of the tree: and this is to be done in May ; when by pinching, or flopping the ftrong fhoots, there may be new wood forced out in any part of the tree. This is the method of the funimer pruning ; the winter prun- ing is ufualiy done in February or March, but is much bet- ter done at Michaelmas, as foon as their ieaves begin to fall ; and the wounds will then have time to heal before the fevere frofts come one. '

In pruning of thefe trees it muft always be obferved alfo, that it is heft done under a wood bud, not a bloffom bud ; which may be diitinguifned by the wood buds being lefs turgid and

PEA

longer, and -narrower than the bloffom bud; for if -the fhoo£ have not a leading bud where it is cut, it will commonly die down to the leading bud. In nailing the fhoots to the wall, they fhould be placed at as equal diftances as pofilble ; and fo far apart that the leaves may have room ; and they muft always be trained as horizontally as poflible, that the lower part of the tree may be well wooded, which it will not be if the branches are fuffered to run upright. Miller's Gard. Did*.

Peach-awW-, the pale red colour of the bloiToms of the peach-tree.

To give this beautiful colour to glafs, add at different times, and in fmall quantities, the powder of prepared manganefe to the mafs, for the making of lattimo, or milk-white glafs while in fufion. This alone gives the peach- co\our ; but the metal muft be immediately worked when of a right tinge, for the colour is very apt to go off. Neri't Art of Glafs, p. 99. See the article Lattimo.

Peach -colour, in the manege. See Blossom.

Wolfs Peach. See Lycopersicon.

P 'each flowers. Thefe are ufed as a purge for children, made into a fyrup, and are by fome recommended as great de- ftroyers of worms ; but there is a circumflance attending them which is little taken notice of, and yet greatly alters their virtue. The cuftom of gardeners is, to graft the peach upon the almond, or the plumtree, and the flowers partake of the nature of the flock ; thofe which are produced on peach-trees grafted on plum-flocks, being much more purga- tive than 3 thofe from almonds ; the reafon of which feems plainly, that the plum is a purgative fruit, the almond not at all fo. The flowers of the leafl efteemed forts of peaches are alfo ufualiy found to be the befl for medicinal ufe. In examining thefe flowers, they are found to contain more than three fourths of a fuperftuous humidity. The buds con- tain a little lefs than the blown flowers ; which is very na- tural to fuppofe, becaufe it is their being afterwards charged with a larger portion of humidity which makes them open. The buttons, or buds of the flowers, are found on experi- ment, however, to be fomewhat more purgative than the flowers when open.

If four pounds of thefe flowers are diftilled is a balneum ma- riee, they yield 1 2 or 13 ounces of a whitifh liquor, fweet to the talfe, and of an agreeable fmell, refembliug that of bruifed peach kernels; and this is fo ftrong in the water, that a few drops of it will very agreeably fcent a larger quantity of any thing. If the buds are ufed to this purpofe, inftead of the open flowers, the fame fort of liquor is drawn over; but it is of a fomewhat coarfer and more earthy fmell. The refiduum of thefe diftillations put into a retort, and diftilled by a reverberatory fire, gradually raifed to its feveral degrees, yields both acid and alkaline jubilances ; and, finally, a red fpirit comes over, full of fuliginous particles, and containing fome oil, part of which fwims at the top of the liquor, and the other part which is heavier, finks to the bottom. This is what a chemical analyfis fhews in thefe flowers, different from other vegetable matters. Spirits of wine draws a very weak tinCture from thefe flowers ; it is indeed much weaker than an infufion of them in common water. An infufion m water of half an ounce of frefh peach-Rowers, or of a dram of dry ones, (for, as before obferved, they contain three fourths of fuperfluous moifture) Is a very gentle and agree- able purge, This method of infufion is much better for thefe and all other purgative flowers, than the taking the ex- preffed juice; for in that cafe there is always a large quantity of purgative matter remaining in the refiduum ; which water in a warm infufion is able to take out The infufion of rofe or peach-Rowers, keeps alfo better than their expreffed juice. The juice always turns four very foon, but the infufion^ with the common caution of pouring a little oil on the fur- face, will keep good even for years.

When oil is ufed to this purpofe, there fhould always be care taken that it be fuch as does not freeze eafily ; for in that cafe the air gets in between the cake of frozen oil, and the fides of the veffel, and fpoils the liquor. Oil of almonds is greatly to be prefered to oil of olives on thefe occafions ; as it freezes with much more difficulty. Another way of preferving the infufions is, the evaporating about half the liquor; and thus they will often keep a long time: infufions keeping better than the juices of plants, feems to fhew, that the former contains more of the principles than the latter. The young leaves of the peach made into an infufion in the fame manner as the flowers, are more purgative than they, but lefs agreeable ; they are to be taken in the fame manner. Mem. Acad. Par. 17 14.

PEAcn-gall-'tnfeSf, in natural hiftory, a fmall gall-infcft, found in great plenty on the peach-tree. It is of an oblong figure, flat at the belly, and prominent on the back ; pointed, and not unaptly refembling in miniature a fmall boat turned bottom upwards. Their longer diameter is ufualiy extended in the fame direction with the length of the branch ; fometimes a little obliquely, but fcarce ever perpendicular to that direc- tion. Their exterior fkin, the only part of them one fees, as they are attached to die tree, is very like the fine, thin,

and