Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/313

 P S I

cats the honey, but feeds only on the wax ; attacking pniici pally thofe waxy cells where the female bee depofits her egg; for the future progeny.

Tiie bees, who are a match for moft other creatures, by means of their ftings, would eafdy deftroy thefe weak creatures, were it not for the impervious armour they are covered with. They form themfelves a coat of armour of a double matter ; the firft, which immediately covers the body, is of a kind of {ilk of their own fpinning ; and the outer covering over this is of the beeswax: this is laid confiderably thick, and the creature juft thrufting out its head to feed, goes on devouring the cells un- difturbed, while a whole army of the inhabitants are in vain buzzing about him, and attempting to pierce him with their ftings. "He never forfakes his covering, but lengthens and enlarges it as he goes ; and gnawing down the fides of the cells in his march, without flaying to eat them one by one, the havock and deftrudtion he occafions are fcarceto be conceived. When the time of the change of this creature approaches, it contrails its body within its double covering, and there changes into the nymph ftate ; whence, after a proper time, it comes forth in form of a moth, with granulated horns and a crook- ed probofcis.

The bees have cunning enough to know their deftru-Stive ene- my in this new form, and as this is a weak and defencelefs ilate, they attack and deftroy all the moths of this fpecies they can meet with. They feldom are fo fortunate, how- ever, as to kill the whole race as foon as produced ; and if only one efcapes, it is able to lay a foundation of revenge for the death of its brethren. All the flies of the moth kind lay a van; number of eggs, and this is behind-hand with none of them in that particular : the young ones produced from the eggs of one furviving female of this fpecies, are fufficient to deftroy many honey-combs ; nay, many hives of them. The moth produced by this caterpillar flies but little, yet is very nimble in avoiding danger by running, which it does with great fwiftnefs.

There are a fpecies of thefe pfeud. -tinea, or wax-eating cater- pillars, which infeft the fubterranean hives of wafps, and other creatures which make wax: the manner of living, feeding, and defending themfelves from their enemies, is the fame in all thefe fpecies. Thefe laft, if they are at any time diftrefled for food, will eat their own dung ; the wax having pafled al- moft unaltered through their bodies, and being ftill wax, and capable of affording them more nourifhment on a fecond di- geftion. Thefe fpecies, tho' they naturally live on this ibft food, yet if by any accident they meet with harder only, they know how to live upon it ; and can eat a way into the covers and leaves of books, and make themfelves cafes and coverings of the fragments of thefe fubftances. The accurate author of thefe obfervations defcribes alfo a kind oi pfeudo-thees which feed on wool, and another that eats leather ; both making themfelves houfes alfo on the materials they feed on. There is alfo another kind, very deftrucVive of corn : thefe make themfelves a covering by faftening together a great num- ber of the grains, and there living and eating in fecret. All thefe creatures, whatever be their food or habitation, finally become phalena, or moths ; and may be diftinguifhed, even in this ftate, from the other fpecies, by having granulated horns of a remarkable ftructure, and all of them a probofcis, or trunk, more or Iefs incurvated. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. T. i.

PSIDIUM, in botany, the name by which Linnasus calls a ge- nus of plants, named guajava by Tournefort and others. Linnai Gen. PI. p. 211. See Guajava.

PSILOCITHARIS'I'A, among the antients, one who plays on the cithara, without lunging in concert to it. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc.

PSITTACUS, the parrot, in the Linnsean fyftem of zoology, makes a particular and diftinc~l genus of birds, of the order of the hawks; the diftinguifliing characters of which are, that the feet have two toes before and two behind. Limuei Syft. Natur. p. 44.

The parrot is a very well-known bird, of which there are fe- veral very beautiful fpecies.

Its head is large, and beek aftd fkull extremely hard and ftrong. It might feem a wonder why nature has deftined to this, which is not naturally a bird of prey, but feeds on fruits and vege- table fubftances, the crooked beak allotted to the hawk and other carnivorous birds ; but the reafon feems to be, that the parrot's being a heavy bird, and its legs not very fit for fer- vice, it climbs up and down trees by the help of this {harp and hooked bill, with which it lays hold of any thing and fe- cures itfelf, before it ftirs a foot; and befides this, it helps it- felf forward very much, by pulling its body on with this hold.

Of all animals, the parrot and crocodile are the only ones which move the upper jaw ; all creatures elfe moving the lower only. As fome particular animals befide are fond of particu- lar foods, fo the parrnt loves nothing fo much as the feeds of the carthamus, or baftard-faffron ; and eats them without any hurt, tho' they are a purge when given to other creatures. The parrcts are common both in the Eaft and Weft Indies : they are a very brilk and lively bird in the warmer countries ; but with us lofe much of their vigour. They lay two or three eggs in the hollow of a tree.

P S O

In all the known parrcts the noftnls are round and placed very high upon the beak, and very near one another. Parrots are divided into three kinds: 1. The larger, which are as big as a moderate fowl, called macabs and cccketoons ; thefe have very long tails. 2. The middle fized ones, com- monly called parrots, which have fhort tails, and are a little' larger than a pigeon. And, 3, The final) ones, which are called paroquet^ and have long tails, and are not larger than. a lark or blackbird. Hay's Ornithoh p. 72.

PSOAS (Cyd.) — Psoas major, called alfo lumbaris internus, a long and thick mufcle, fituatcd on the abdomen, on the lumbar region, adhering to the vertebra of the loins, from the pofte- rior part of the os ilium to the anterior part near the thigh. It is fixed above to the laft vertebrx of the back, and to all thofe of the loins; that is, to the lateral parts of the bodies' of thefe vertebrae, and to the roots of their tranfverfe apophy- fes. The infertlons in the bodies of the vertebrae are by a kind of digitations, and are very little tendinous : from thence the mufcle runs down laterally over the os ilium, on one fide* of the iliac mufcle ; and pafies over the ligamentum Fallopii, between the anterior inferior fpine of the os ilium, and that eminence which, from its fituation, may be called iliopettinea. Before it goes out of the abdomen it unites with the iliacus, and afterwards covers the forefide of the head of the os femoris. It is fometimes accompanied by a fmall mufcle, called pfoas parvus. Winjlavfs Anatomy, p 204.

Psoas parvus, a long (lender mufcle lying upon the pfoa- major: it is fometimes wanting ; but tho' fome have imagined it want- ing in one fex more than the other, the conjecture feems with- out foundation. It is fixed above by a fhort tendon, fome- times to the laft tranfverfe apophyfis of the back, or higher ; fometimes to the firft of the loins, and fometimes to both ' from thence it runs down wholly fleftiy, and more or lefs com- plex on the great pfoas, in a direction a little oblique; and having reached the middle of the regio lumbaris, it forms a flender flat tendon, which gradually increafing in breadth like a thin aponeurofis, runs over the pjoas major, and i/iacu- in- terims at their union ; and from thence down to the fyraphv- fis of the os pubis and os ilium, and is inferted chiefly in the crifta of the os pubis, above the infertion of the petStinaeus. JVinjlovSs Anatomy, p. 250.

Befide this pfoas parvus, there is another, ftill fmaller, between it and the vertebra?.

PSORA, (Cyd ) in botany, a name by which Aetius and feveral others of the later Greek writers have called the pfarice of the antient Greeks, that is, the fcabiofa of the Latins, and our common fcabious. It has been fuppofed by fome, that the antient Greeks were not acquainted with our fcabious % but that is an erroneous opinion, both the defcription and virtues of the pforice being the fame with thofe of the fcabious. See Psobice.

PSORALTA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants of the leguminous kind, the characters of which are thefe : the pe- rianthium is one-leaved, and is dotted with a fort of tubercles, and is divided into five acute fegments, the under one being twice as long as any of the others. The flower is of the pa- pilionaceous kind, and is compofed of five petals. The vexil- lum is roundifh, emarginated, and rifes upwards. The alas are lunulated, obtufe and fmall. The carina is dipetalous, lunulated, and obtufe. The ftamina are diadelphous fila- ments, and the antherae are roundifh. The germen of the piftil is flender. The ftile is pointed, and of the length of the ftamina. The ftigma is obtufe. The fruit is a pod of the length of the cup ; it is of a compreffed figure and pointed. The feed is Angle and kidney-fhaped. It is very fingular in this plant, that the cup is always dotted with tubercles, and the petals of the flowers are full of coloured veins. Linnet Gen. PI. p. 358. Ray's Lugd. p. 372.

PSORAS, in zoology, a name by which fome authors have called a fifh of the turdus kind, remarkable for the variety and beauty of its fpots, and more tifually known by the name lepras. Wiliughbys Hift. Pifc. p. 3 <o. See Lepros.

PSORIASIS, a peculiar fpecies of itch affeiSlin-i the fcrotum.

PSORICE, or PsoRrcE-""'^, a name given by the botanical writers among the antient Greeks to the plant we call fcabiofa, or fcabious.

They have fo well defcribed this plant, th~t there is no room to doubt its being our fcabious; and they have attributed the famevirtuesto it, and given it in the fame diftempers that we do. Yet fome botanifts of the later ages, having overlooked their defcriptions of the pforice, have fuppofed that our fcabi- ous was wholly unknown to the antients : and others have thought that the ftebe of thofe writers was this plant. But this is as erroneous as the former opinion, for the ftsebe of the an- tient (J reeks was the name of the phleos, a kind of marfhy gnaphalium, or cudweed ■ and with fome, the name of the pheos or hippopheos, called by Diofcorides hippophaes, a prickly fhrub, growing on the fandy fhores of the ifland of Crete, and ufed by the fullers in drefling their cloths* Pelagonius recommends the herb pft ice, among feveral other known antifcorbutics, in a compound medicine, intended for the itch, or any other virulent eruption. Aetius prefcribes the fame plant under the name of pjora, and the modern Greeks call it campiufa or fcamplufa ; a name which, tho'

Fuch-