Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/214

 PEP

P E R

PEPLUS, [farta;, among the antients, a kind of garment worn J by women. Pitifc. in voc. 1

The peplus was a long robe that reached to the feet, without any fleeves, and fo exceeding fine that the fhape of the body could eafily be difcovered through it. Hift. 1'Acad. Infer, vol.3. p. 401.

The peplus of Minerva is very famous among antient my- thologies. The Athenians ufed a great deal of ceremony in the making the peplus, and dreffing the ftatue of this goddefs with it. See Potter? Archsol. Grsec. 1. 2. c. 20. T. 1. p. 421.

Peplus, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the fmaller round-leaved fpecies of tithymal, or /purge, as they call the narrow-leaved ones efula. See the article Tithy-

MALUS.

PEPO, the pompion, or pumpkin, the name of a genus of plants allied to the melon and cucumber kinds. The characters of the genus are thefe : The flowers confift of one leaf each, fhaped like a bell, wide open at the mouth, and divided into feveral fegments at the end. Of thefe flowers fome are male or fteril, having no embryo; others are female or fruitful, having an embryo, which ripens into a large fruit, with fomctimes a fmooth, fometimes a rough bark. The figure is fometimes oval, fometimes round, and the bark often very hard, tuberous, and hollow : it is divided into three cells within, and contains flat feeds furrounded with a fort of ring, and fixed to a fpongy placenta.

The fpecies of pompion, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The great long-fruited pomp-ion. 1. The great round-fruited pompion. 3. The orange-fruited pompion. 4. The ball pompion., or ball gourde called by authors cucwbitula piles palmari.s figura. 5, The fmall round huited-pompion, called the fmall rough-fruited yellow gourd. 6. The round- fruited variegated potnpion. J. The pompion with a variegated fruit of a turbinated form. 8. The turbinated white pem- pion. g. 'I 'he turbinated yellow pc?npion. 10. The leaft tur- binated pompion. ri. Thepear-fafhioned/o^/iw. 12. The oval yellow pompion. 13. The rough oval yellow pompion. 14. The variegated yellowifli oval pompion. Tourn, Inft. p. 105.

We generally cfteem the pompion but an unwholfome food, but there is another ufe in it worth enquiring into. The world heard much of the fame of a fecret medicine prepared by Petrus de Caftro, chief phyfician to the duke of Mantua, for the cure of pleurifies. When the fecret of this was dif- covered and published in the A&a Leipfienfia, it appeared to be no more than the rinds of the oblong Italian fompions, pared clean from the pulp, and boiled many hours together in old oil of olives.

PEPPER (Cycl.J — Ciapa Pepper, pimienta de Ciapa, a name given by the Spaniards to a fort of fpice which they difco- vered in Ciapa, a province of Guatimala in New Spain, and of which they were at firft very fond, both in food and medicine.

In medicine it is a very good cephalic and ftomachic. It is recommended very ftrongly alfo by fome of the Spanifh wri- ters, as a cure for the epilepfy and the gutta ferena, but thofe who have tried it in thefe cafes do not confirm fuch ac- counts.

The defcriptions we have of it are, that it has the tafte of cloves, pepper, cinnamon, and ginger, all blended together ; and Redi is of opinion, that it is no other than our pimento, or Jamaica pepper. Real's LTperien.

Vb.PPEX.-7nu/broom, in botany, a name given by Dr. Lifter to a new fpecies of fungus, difcovered by him in the woods of Yorkshire, whofe juice is acrid and hot as pepper. This is fomewhat larger than the common efculent mufhroom, but of the fame fhape with that, having a round head and open gills underneath. The head is very flefhy, and the pedicle alfo is folid, not hollow, as in molt other of the larger fun- gufes : any part of this mnfhror.m being cut or broken, it bleeds very freely a white milky juice, li.ee that of the tithy- mals. This juice taftes like pepper, only that it is much hotter. It is not vifcous or clammy to the touch, and the air does not much difcolour it; nor does it render the blade of the knife, with which it is cut, black, as moft other ve- getable juices do. When let out of the plant it very foon concretes into a firm and dry mafs, making a fort of cake ■ and when thus dried into a folid fubftance, it retains its white colour and pungent tafte. It is very remarkable, that this mi'jhroom, tho' fo hot to our tongues as not to be endured. yet is fo well fuited to the palates and nature of certain in- fects, that they can not only feed on it, but live comfortably in the midft of it. The yellow naked fnail feeds greedily on the plant while growing, and the ftalks of it at fuch time- as the juice is fharpeft of all, that is, while it is growine to the full fize, are full of the maggots or worms hatched from the eggs of flies, depofited there for a nidus and food for them in that ftate. The juice has a great affinity with eiipborbium, and may be brought into medicinal ufe, per- haps, to very good purpofe.

John Bauhine defcribes a muft»-oon much refembling this, but (mailer and lefs flefhy ; and the Pruflians and Polanders have fclbrt of great mujhrcom, which they c&}\ grcozdijh, s, which

agrees with this in many particulars ; but it is larger and thicker. Phil. Tranf. N° 89. See the article Grooz- dishys.

PEPPER-rm? of Jamaica, See Pimienta.

PEPPER-ivater, a liquor prepared by the curious for examina- tion by the microfcope, as always affording a "real number of fmall animals.

The method of preparing it is this, put common black pep- per grofsly powdered, into an open vefle! fo as to cover the bottom of it half an inch thick, and put to it rain or river water, till it covers it an inch, fhake or ftir the whole well together at the firft mixing, but never difturb it afterwards : let the vefle! be expofed to the air uncovered ; and in a few days there will be feen a pellicle or thin fkin fwimmino- on the furface of the liquor, looking of feveral colours. This is a congeries of multitudes of fmall animals ; and being examined by the microfcope, will be feen all in motf n : the animals, at firft fight, are fo fmall as not to be diftin- guifhable, unlefs to the greateft magnifiers ; but they grow daily till they arrive at their full fize. Their numbers are alfo continually increafing, till the whole furface cf the li- quor is full of them, to a confiderable depth. When difturb- ed they will fometimes all dart down 10 the bottom, but they foon after come up to the furface again. The fkin ap- pears fooneft in warm weather, and the animals "row the quickeft ; but in the fevercft cold it will fucceed, unlefs the water freezes. Pater's Microfcope, p. 7 t. About the quantity of a pin's head of this fcum, taken up on the nib of a new pen, or the tip of a hair pencil, is to be laid on a plate of cler glafs; and if applied firft to the third magnifier, then to the fecond, and, finally, to the firft, will fhew the different animalcules it contains, of feveral kinds and fh-ipes as well as fizes Phil. Tranf. N u 284. The animalcules found in this liquor, are principally of fix kinds: r. The largeft kind of all is in length about the diameter of a hair, and of fcarce a fourth part of that mea- fure in breadth : they are very thin and tranfparent, but their back is darker than their belly : they turn about very fre- quently and nimbly in the water; their fides are fringed with a great number of minute feet, which are feen principally at the two ends j and at one end there are alfo fome briftlcs longer than the feet, which make a fort of tail. They are very nimble, and walk as well as fwim, and will climb up a hair if put in among them.

2. There is a fmaller fort, whofe length is about a third of a hair's breadth ; but their tail is five or fix times as Jono- as their body. This they either carry ftrait, or in a fpiral form ; and at the other end they thruft out a fort of bearded tongue ; thefe make a conftant current of water toward them.

3. There is a fmaller fort than thefe, which are fometimes feen of an oval figure, and fomctimes long and flat like a flounder : thefe alio have feet which are plainly feen when the water is evaporating.

A fourth kind appear like flender worms, fifty times as Ion* as broad : their thicknefs is not above the hundredth part of a hair's breadth ; and they move with equal eafe either for- ward or backward. There are a fifth fort extremely minute and round ; and a fixth kind which are longer than thefe, but not larger ; and probably there may be yet many kinds not difcovered. Thefe fmall animals are eafily deftroyed ; a little diflblved fait or fugar, or fpirit of vitriol, or even fpittle will kill them; and in the drying away of the waters many of them burft. Phil. Tranf. N° 203

PER^EQUATORES, among the Romans, afTeflors appointed to regulate the cenfus according to every man's cifcumlfances, by eaftng thofe that were overcharged, and raifing the taxa- tion if too low. Pitifc. in voc.

PERANEMA, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian fifh, of the fize of the pearch, being ten or eleven fingers in length, and about three fingers broad in the broadeft part. Its mouth is large and round, and has no teeth, but feveral very rough and fharp prominences. Its eyes are lar^e, and it has one long fin running down the back, which is fup- ported by rigid and prickly rays. Tts tail is not forked ; its whole body is a filvcry white, with a faint blufh of red. 'Its fcales are extremely fmall, and of a triangular figure, and its belly is very white. It is a fea fifh, and is wholefome and well-tafted. Marggraves Hift. Brafil. l l /illughby\ Hift. Pifc. P 339-

PERANITES, the name of a done mentioned with manv idle ftories of its origin, by the writers of the middle a»es. It feems originally to have been only a corruption of the word pear.udet, a name by which the antients feem to have called omjhdafiites or dropjlone.

PERCA, the pearch, in the Linnsean fyftem of zoology, the name of a genus of fifties of the order of the acamhopte- rygii. The characters of thefe are, that the membrane of the gills has feven bones, and the back has one or two fins. Of this genus are the per ca, ludoferca, lupus, &c. Linnai Syflema Naturae, p. 53.

In the Artedian fyftem of ichthyology, the characters of the pearch are thefe: It is of the acanthopterygious kind. The branchioftege membrane on each fide, contains feven bones. The fcales are very hard and rough, or armed with a fort of

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