Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/548

 532 PINXERTON PINKROOT prized garden flowers. The Chinese pink (D. Chinensis) is a biennial, but as it flowers the first year from seed it is treated as an annual ; it presents a great variety of colors in both single and double flowers, and while very showy is without fragrance. The pinks in- troduced within a few years as D. Heddewigii, laciniatus, and diadematus, are only varieties of the Chinese pink, some of them with very large flowers. The perennial pinks may be raised from seed, the plants flowering the sec- ond year ; but the established varieties are con- tinued by layering or by cuttings, which are made from the leafy shoots at the base of the old plants. Great numbers of carnations are raised every winter for bouquets and floral decorations ; the plants are started from cut- tings in spring, and planted in the open ground, all the flower buds being removed as soon as they appear; in October they are potted, to be placed in the greenhouse, but where many are grown they are planted in earth upon the greenhouse benches ; for winter blooming, self- colored flowers are preferred, especially pure white and bright carmine. During some win- ters carnations can be left in the open ground without injury, but it is safer for the amateur to keep them in a cold frame during winter. PINKERTON, John, a Scottish author, born in Edinburgh in February, 1758, 'died in Paris, March 10, 1826. He was intended for the law, but settled in London in 1780 as a literary man. He published "Rimes" (1781); "Select Scot- tish Ballads " (2 vols. 8vo, 1783), many of the pieces being of his own composition ; an " Es- say on Medals" (2 vols., 1784); "Letters on Literature, by Robert Heron" (1785); "An- cient Scottish Poems" (2 vols., 1786), pub- lished from the manuscript collections of Sir Richard Maitland ; "Dissertation on the Ori- gin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths " (1787); and "Inquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the Reign of Malcolm III." (2 vols., 1789). His "History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary" (2 vols. 4to, 1797) is the most accurate history of the period. After the death of his patron "Walpole he published "Walpoliana" (2 vols., 1799). Among his remaining works are the "Medallic History of England to the Revolution" (4to, 1790); " Iconographia Scotica" (4 parts 4to, 1794-'7); " Modern Geography digested on a New Plan " (2 vols. 4to, 1802) ; " Recollections of Paris in the Years '1802-V (2 vols., 1806); "General Collection of Voyages and Travels" (17 vols. 4to, 1808-' 14), with maps and more than 200 engravings; and "Petralogy, or a Treatise on Rocks" (2 vols. 8vo, 1811). In addition to these he edited three volumes of scarce Scot- tish poems, Barbour's "Bruce," "Lives of Scottish Saints," &c. The last 22 years of his life were passed in Paris, where he died in indigent circumstances. Hia literary corre- spondence was edited by Dawson Turner (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1830). PINKKEY. I. William, an American lawyer, born in Annapolis, Md., March 17, 1764, died Feb. 25, 1822. His family was a branch of the South Carolina Pinckneys, and early set- tled at Annapolis. He studied medicine in Baltimore, but devoted himself to law, and was called to the bar in 1786. In 1788 he was a delegate to the convention which rati- fied the constitution of the United States, and he subsequently held various state offices in the house of delegates, senate, and council. In 1796 he was sent to London as commissioner under the Jay treaty, remaining abroad till 1804. In 1805 he became attorney general for the state of Maryland. He was minister extraordinary to England in 1806, to treat with the British government in conjunction with Monroe, and was resident minister from 1807 to 1811, when he was appointed attorney general of the United States, which office he held over two years. He commanded a vol- unteer corps in the war of 1812, and was se- verely wounded at the battle of Bladensburg. In 1815 he was a member of congress, and in 1816 was appointed minister to Russia and spe- cial minister to Naples. In 1818 he returned home, and in 1819 was elected a United States senator. His "Life" was written by Henry Wheaton (New York, 1826). II. Edward Coate, an American poet, son of the preceding, born in London in October, 1802, died in Balti- more, April 11, 1828. He was educated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, and at the age of 14 entered the navy as a midshipman. In 1824 he resigned his commission, was married, and commenced the practice of the law. In 1826 he was appointed a professor in the university of Maryland, and in 1827 assumed control of a political journal called "The Marylander," which from ill health he was soon obliged to relinquish. His poetical reputation rests on a volume entitled " Rodolph and other Poems," published anonymously in 1825. Some of the songs in this, including " The Health " and the " Picture Song," still have great popularity. PINKROOT, an American ornamental and medicinal plant, known also in different lo- calities as Indian pink, Carolina and Mary- land pink and pinkroot, and worm grass. Its botanical name is Spigelia Marilandica; the genus (named in honor of Abraham Spigel or Spigelius, a botanist of the 17th century) belongs to the not very well limited order of LoganiaceoB. The plant is found from Penn- sylvania and Wisconsin southward, being much more abundant in the southern states, though like other medicinal plants it is becoming rare everywhere. The root consists of very nu- merous yellow fibres ; the simple erect, some- what square stems, from 6 to 18 in. high, bear opposite, sessile, ovate-lanceolate leaves; the floAvers, in a simple or forked one-sided spike at the top of the stem, are about an inch and a half long, tubular funnel-formed with five short lobes, of a deep red outside, and yellow within. This is one of the most brilliant of