Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/207

 P A L P A L 189 he published a number of clever but exceedingly scurrilous satires on the Roman curia and on the powerful house of the Barberini, which were so keenly resented at Rome that a price was set on his head. A Frenchman of the name of Charles de Breche decoyed him from Venice, where he was comparatively safe, to the neighbourhood of Avignon, and there betrayed him into his enemies hands. After fourteen months imprisonment and some observance of the formalities of a trial he was beheaded at Avignon on March 6, 1644. His Opcrc Pcrtnesse was published at Venice in 1655, but being, as may be imagined, inferior in scurrility and grossness (Palla- vicino s specialities), are much less prized by the curious than the Opere Scelte (Geneva, 1660), which were more than once reprinted in Holland, and were translated into German in 1663. PALL A VICING, or PALLAVIOINI, SFORZA (1607-1667), cardinal, representative of another branch of the same family, was born at Rome in 1607. Having taken holy orders in 1630, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1638, he successively taught philosophy and theology in the Collegio Romano ; as professor of theology he was a member of the congregation appointed by Innocent X. to investigate the Jansenist heresy. In 1659 he was made a cardinal by Alexander VII. His death occurred in 1667. Pallavicino is chiefly known by his history of the council of Trent, written in Italian, 4 and published at Rome in two folio volumes in 1656-57 (2d edition, considerably modified, in 1666). His avowed object was to correct and supersede the very damaging work of Sarpi on the same subject, and he certainly, by virtue of his position, had access to many important sources from the use of which his predecessor had been precluded ; the contending parties, however, are far from agreed as to the completeness of his success. The work was translated into Latin by a Jesuit named Giattinus (Antwerp, 1670). There is a good edition of the original by Zaccharia (6 vols. 4to, 1792-99). It was translated into German by Klitsche in 1835-37. PALLIUM, PALLA. These articles of Roman dress, corresponding to the Greek himation, are described in the article COSTUME (vol. vi. pp. 453, 456-57), where also the pallium, as an ecclesiastical vestment peculiar to arch bishops in the Roman Church, has been spoken of (pp. 461, 463). In the East the pallium is worn by all bishops, and one or two instances have occurred in the Western Church also in which it has been conferred by the pope on prelates of less than archiepiscopal rank. The canon law forbids archbishops to Avear this vestment until it has been solemnly asked for (either personally or by deputy) and obtained from the holy see ; even then it is only to be worn on certain specified occasions, such as at high ponti fical mass or at an episcopal consecration. Every arch bishop must apply for it within three months after his consecration, and it is buried with him at his death. The pallium is never granted until after payment of consider able dues. The pallia are prepared by nuns from white wool obtained from lambs which have been consecrated on St Agnes s eve in the church of that saint in Rome ; the vestments are blessed on the festival of Saints Peter and Paul, and deposited for a night on the altar over St Peter s tomb ; they are afterwards taken charge of by the sub- deacon, and given out as required. The growth of the occasional practice of bestowing the pallium into an invariable custom, and of the custom into a law, will be traced in the article POPEDOM. PALM. From their noble aspect, and perhaps from the surpassing utility of several of the members of the group, the Palms (Palmacex) have been termed the princes of the vegetable kingdom. Neither the anatomy of their steins nor the conformation of their flowers, however, entitles them to any such high position in the vegetable hierarchy. Their stems are not more complicated in structure than those of the common butcher s broom (Ruscus) ; their flowers are for the most part as simple as those of a rush (Juncus). For all that, palms have always had great interest, not only for botanists, but also for the general public, in the latter case by reason of the his torical and legendary interest connected with them no less than from their beauty and economic value. The order Palmacese is characterized among monocotyledonous plants by the presence of a stem very frequently unbranched, and bearing a tuft of leaves at the extremity only, or with the leaves scattered, these leaves, often gigantic in size, being usually firm in texture and branching in a pinnate or palmate fashion. The flowers are borne on simple or branching spikes, very generally protected by a spathe or spathes, and each consists typically of a perianth of six greenish, somewhat inconspicuous segments in two rows, with six stamens, a pistil of 13 carpels, each with a single ovule and a succulent or dry fruit never dehiscent (figs. 1, 2). The seed consists almost exclusively of perisperm or albumen in a cavity in which is lodged the relatively very minute embryo (fig. 3). These are the general charac Fig. 1. Fig. 2. FIG. 1. Diagram of the 6 flower of t hamferops, Fan-Palm, showing six divisions of the periantli and six stamens. FIG. 2. Diagram of the Q flower of the Chainserops, showing six divisions of the perianth in two rows, and three cells of the ovary. FIG. 3. Portion of the perisperm of a palm, showing the embryo within a small cavity. teristics by which this very well-defined order may be discriminated, but, in a group containing considerably more than a thousand species, dispersed widely and at dif ferent elevations throughout the tropics of both hemi spheres, with stragglers in subtropical and even in warm temperate regions, it may well be imagined that devia tions from the general plan of structure occur with some frequency. As the characteristic appearances of palms depend to a large extent upon these modifications, some of the more important among them may briefly be noticed. Taking the stem first, we may mention that it is in very many palms relatively tall, erect, unbranched, regularly cylindrical, or dilated below so as to form an elongated cone, either smooth, or covered with the projecting remnants of the former leaves, or marked with circular scars indicating the position of those leaves which have now fallen away. In other cases the stem is very slender, short, erect, prostrate, or scandent by means of formidable hooked prickles which, by enabling the plant to support itself on the branches of neighbouring trees, also permit the stem to grow to a very great length and so to expose the foliage to the light and air above the tree-tops of the dense forests these palms grow in, as in the genus Calamus. In some few instances the trunk, or that portion of it which is above ground, is so short that the plant is in a loose way called &quot; stemless &quot; or &quot; acaulescent,&quot; as in Geonoma, and as happens sometimes in the solitary species found in a wild state in Europe, Chamserops hwnilis. In many species the trunk is covered over with a dense network of stiff fibres, often compacted together at the free ends into spines. This fibrous material, which is so valuable for cordage, consists of the fibrous tissue of the leaf -stalk, which in these cases persists after the decay of the softer portions. It is very character istic of some palms to produce from the base of the stem a series of adventitious roots which gradually thrust them selves into the soil and serve to steady the tree and prevent