Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/546

 530 PINE SNAKE PINK near the shore. The aboriginal inhabitants, of the same race as those in New Caledonia, were formerly cannibals; of late years they have become partially civilized. There are some European settlers, who cultivate the coast lands. In 1872 the French assembly selected the isle of Pines as a penal station for offend- ers condemned to imprisonment in a fortress. Several of the participants in the communal insurrection of 1871 are confined there. PINE SNARE (pituophis melanoleucus), a large serpent living in the pine lands from New Jersey southward. It attains a length of 6 ft. and a thickness of 2 in. The color is shining creamy white, with dark brown and chestnut blotches. Though large it is harmless, and it is perhaps the handsomest of the eastern snakes. It feeds on mammals, birds, and eggs ; it emits a strong disagreeable odor. It is sometimes called bull snake, from its loud bellowing sound. PINGRE, Alexandra Gui, a French astronomer, born in Paris, Sept. 4, 1711, died in 1796. He was educated at a convent school in Senlis, and became a teacher of theology ; but having em- braced Jansenistic opinions, he devoted him- self to astronomy. He published from 1754 to 1757, under the name of Etat du del, a valuable nautical calendar ; and after verifying La Caille's table of modern eclipses in the Art de verifier les dates, he computed the similar phenomena that had occurred in the ten cen- turies preceding our era. From 1760 to 1776 he made scientific voyages to observe transits of stars, and to ascertain the value of Berthoud and Leroy's timepieces. In 1783 he published his Cometographie, ou traite Jiistorique des cometes (2 vols. 4to). He calculated the orbits of 24 comets. He translated the Astronomica of Manilius (1786). PIXGl'ICl'LA (Lat. pinguis, fat), a small genus of plants belonging to the bladderwort family (lentibulacece). They are stemless herbs with a cluster of broad rad- ical leaves, from the centre of which rises a naked scape bearing a solitary drooping flow- er, with a two-lipped calyx and a spurred monopetalous corolla, which is somewhat two-lipped, the upper lips two- and the low- er three-lobed ; the plants are usually found in wet places, such as the margins of ponds and on wet rocks. There are five species in the United States, four of which are pe- culiar to the southern states, and one, P. vulgaris, rather rare on our northern borders, is found throughout the northern portions of the old world. This spe- cies has the common name of butterwort, from Butterwort (Ptnguicula vulgaris). the greasy feel of the leaves, which also gives the botanical name; the flower stalk is 3 to 5 in. high, and the handsome flower bluish purple. The leaves have long been known to possess the power of coagulating milk in the same manner as rennet, and it is the custom of the Laplanders to pour reindeer's milk over the leaves for this purpose. The digestive power (so to speak) of the leaves has been examined by Darwin, whose investi- gations show that this must be added to the now considerable list of insectivorous plants. When an insect, meat, cartilage, or other ani- mal matter is placed upon a leaf of the pin- guicula, its margin curls over to embrace it, and the glands at the edge of the leaf pour out a slightly acid secretion which envelops the object and digests it. (See DION^EA, and INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS.) PINK, the common name for species of di- anthus (Gr. A*<5f, of Zeus, and avdos, flower), many of which have long been in cultivation as garden flowers. One of the species, D. caryophyllus, has furnished the name, caryo- Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus). phyllacece, which botanists give to the pink family. The genus includes annual and peren- nial herbs, with opposite, narrow, often rigid, grass-like leaves ; the flowers with their parts in fives ; the long tubular calyx is five-toothed at the apex, and bracted at the base ; the five petals have very long slender stalks, or claws, as they are technically called; stamens ten; styles two, the ovary ripening as a one-celled seed vessel, opening at the apex by four valves, and containing numerous seeds, which are flat- tish on the back. The species, of which there are properly about 70, though more than 200 are to be found in the books, mainly belong to the old world. North America can claim but one, D. repens, which is found on the N. W. coast at Kotzebue's sound and in other high latitudes, and is also a native of Siberia. The pinks are generally showy, but the two found