Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/153

 PARTRIDGE Africa ; it is found also in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey; its flesh is highly es- teemed, but it affords less sport than the com- mon species from the separation of the flock when pursued by dogs ; it is also believed to drive off the gray partridge. The Greek or rock partridge ( C. Grceca, Briss.) is larger than the last, and has the plumage more ashy ; it inhabits the mountainous regions of Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor, and is probably the species alluded to in the Hebrew and other ancient writings ; the flesh is white and much esteemed, though it is occasionally bitter. The genus ithaginis (Wagl.) has a short stout bill, lengthened and rounded tail, long tarsi armed with two or three blunt spurs, anil the toes and claws long. Here belongs the sanguine par- tridge (/. cruentus, Hardw.), from the moun- tains of N. India ; it is slate-colored above with yellow streaks, and greenish yellow be- low irregularly spotted with red ; edge of tail coverts and vent red ; it is nearly as large as a pheasant. PARTRIDGE, Alden, an American soldier, born in Norwich, Vt., about 1785, died there, Jan. 17, 1854. He graduated at West Point in 1806, and acted as assistant professor and af- terward professor of mathematics in that insti- tution from that time till 1813. He was pro- fessor of engineering from 1813 to 1816, and superintendent from January, 1815, to No- vember, 1816, and from January to July, 1817. In 1818 he left the service, with the rank of captain. He was the principal of the ex- ploring survey sent out in 1819 to determine the N. W. boundary of the United States. He founded in 1820 at Norwich, Vt., a military academy, which was afterward removed for a time to Middletown, Conn., but restored to Norwich and incorporated as Norwich uni- versity, with Capt. Partridge as its president. He subsequently founded similar institutions in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Delaware, was chosen surveyor general of his native state in 1822, and was a member of the Vermont legislature from 1833 to 1839. PARTRIDGE BERRY, a name sometimes ap- plied to the common plant Gaultheria procum- lens (see WINTERGREEN), but which properly belongs and should be restricted to Mitchella repens. This genus was named by Linna3us in honor of Dr. John Mitchell, a resident of Vir- ginia and an excellent botanist. It belongs to the madder family (rubiacece), and consists of a single Japanese species besides our own, which extends from Canada throughout the states to Mexico, and is also found in the mountains of South America. The partridge berry is a small trailing evergreen, with a much branch- ing stem a foot or less long ; it is common in dry woods, forming a dense mat about the foot of trees ; the opposite short-petioled leaves are round-ovnte, dark green, and often variegated ith whitish lines; the flowers are in pairs, with their two inferior ovaries united, the tube of the funnel-shaped corolla about half an inch 640 VOL. xiii. 10 PARTRIDGE WOOD 143 long, the limb with four spreading lobes dense- ly_ bearded within, pearly white, often tinged with rose or purplish and very fragrant ; the four stamens and single pistil are dimorphous. Partridge Berry (Mitchella repens). i. ., in some flowers the stamens are long and protrude beyond the throat of the corolla, while in other flowers this is reversed, the pistil being long and the stamens hidden with- in the tube. The fruit is about the size of a whortleberry, broader than long, and being of two cohering ovaries shows the calyces of the two flowers ; it is bright scarlet, and each half contains four bony nutlets in a white pulp. The berries remain on the plant through the winter, and it is not rare to find ripe fruit at the same time with the flowers in June. Other local names are one-berry, two-eyes, winter clover, and in some parts of New Eng- land checkerberry. The berries, while edible, are almost tasteless, and few care to eat them, but they furnish food for birds. PARTRIDGE WOOD, a wood imported from South America and some parts of the West In- dies for the use of cabinet makers, by whom it is prized for fine work. It is reddish, beau- tifully marked with parallel lines and streaks of a darker color. Its toughness also makes it valuable for umbrella sticks and similar uses. Several trees, of different families, have been credited with furnishing this wood, and it is likely that the product of two or more differ- ent trees is known in commerce under the same name. According to Guibourt, the gov- ernment museums in France have specimens under the name of fiois de perdrix which be- long to different trees, and the wood known in the Paris market by that name appears to be different from the partridge wood of the Lon- don dealers. These woods are apparently from brees of the family of hguminosce ; andira in- ermis seems to furnish one of them, but the matter is involved in much confusion.