Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/711

 POMBAL the molluscoids, popularly known as sea mosses and sea mats ; Ehrenberg called them bryozoa. They form colonies of distinct similar zooids, protected usually by a horny or chitinous in- tegument. They look much like hydroids, but the separate cells of the colony are merely con- nected externally, without direct communica- tion with each other. The separate zooids are called polypides, and each is enclosed in a dou- ble sac, the outer wall of which, or ectocyst, is chitinous or calcareous, the inner being a deli- cate endocyst. The mouth is surrounded by cil- iated tentacles, the movements of which create currents in the water which bring them their food ; these can be more or less retracted into the sac. There is a well marked gullet, stom- ach, and distinct alimentary canal, with the vent at the upper part of the sac ; the nervous sys- tem is essentially a single ganglionic mass, be- tween the gullet and the anus, which gives off filaments in various directions ; the circulation is carried on by means of cilia, there being no distinct heart, and no definite course to the circulating fluid ; respiration is effected chiefly by the crown of ciliated tentacles around the mouth. There are distinct reproductive organs within the sac ; they are all hermaphrodite, the eggs being dropped into the body cavity, where they are fertilized ; they also reproduce by con- tinuous budding and discontinuous gemmation. An organ, called the "bird's head process," with pincer-like beaks which are constantly snapping together, has not been assigned for any definite use. Most of the polyzoa are fixed and plant-like ; but the fresh-water cristatella colony creeps about on a base flattened like the foot of a slug. In the fresh-water forms the crown of tentacles generally assumes the horse- shoe shape, while in the marine it is circular.. For descriptions and figures of the fresh-water polyzoa see " American Naturalist," vol. i., 1868. (See BEYOZOA.) POMBAL, Dom Sebastian Jose cle Carvalho e Mello, marquis of, a Portuguese statesman, born in Lisbon, May 13, 1699, died at Pombal, May , 1782. He studied law at Ooimbra, served for a time in the army, went to court, and in 1739 became envoy extraordinary to London. Thence he was sent in 1745 to Vienna, where he successfully mediated between the Austrian government and Pope Benedict XIV., and mar- ried the countess of Daun, whose influence secured for him in 1750 the appointment by King Joseph as minister of foreign affairs. He soon gained such complete ascendancy over Joseph as enabled him to effect, in spite of the nobility, a series of important reforms in the colonial affairs and in the internal adminis- tration. After the earthquake of November, 1755, he passed 14 days and nights in his car- riage amid the ruins of Lisbon, for the relief of distress and the protection of the lives and property of the citizens against the banditti. He afterward directed the rebuilding of the city. In 1756 he became first minister. In 1758 a band of assassins attacked the king near POMEGRANATE 691 Lisbon, and shortly afterward, at the insti- gation of Carvalho, the duke of Aveiro, the marquis of Tavora with his wife and two sons, and the count of Atougia, were arrested and executed as principals in the conspiracy, and several of their accomplices were thrown into prison. The Jesuits, who were suspected of implication in the plot, were banished from the kingdom by a royal decree of Sept. 3, 1759, many of their number having already been imprisoned and put to death. In the same year Carvalho was created count d'Oeiras, and in 1770 marquis of Pombal. On the death of Joseph in 1777, he was dismissed through the intrigues of the remaining friends of the Jesuitical party and of the nobility, and ban- ished to a distance of 60 m. from the court. In spite of many abuses of power, Pombal is still called by his countrymen "the great marquis," and it has been well remarked that " never had so small a kingdom so great a minister." POMEGRANATE (Lat. pomum, a fruit, and gra- natum, grained or many-seeded), a fruit-bearing tree botanically known as Punica granatum (Lat. Punicus, of Carthage). It was known from the earliest times, as frequent reference is made to it in the Mosaic writings, and sculp- tured representations of the fruit are found on the ancient monuments of Egypt and in the Assyrian ruins. It is found in a truly wild state only in northern India. The shrub, or small tree, rarely exceeds 15 or 20 ft. in height, with very numerous, slender, twig-like branch- es ; the leaves are oblong or obovate, opposite or scattered, and often clustered on the branch- lets ; the flowers are terminal, usually solitary, with a leathery calyx, colored like the petals, its tube coherent with the ovary, and its limb five- to seven-lobed, bearing on its throat five to seven petals and numerous stamens; the ovary has two sets of cells, one above the oth- er ; the lower portion has three cells and the upper five to seven, each with many ovules ; the fruit is a large berry, crowned with the calyx lobes, having a very leathery rind, and containing numerous seeds ; each seed is en- closed in a sac or pellucid vesicle, which con- tains a thin, acid, usually crimson pulp ; these sacs are about half an inch long and somewhat angular by mutual compression; the interior of the fruit has the same number of divisions as there are cells in the ovary. The unusual structure in the ovary and fruit has made the pomegranate rather difficult to classify ; it has many points of relationship with the myrtle family, and is by some botanists placed there ; others follow Endlicher in giving it an or- der to itself, the granatece, while Hooker and Bentham class it as an anomalous genus, in the loosestrife family (lythraceoB). There is but one species, with several marked varieties, one of which, a dwarf, has been called Punica nana; the flowers are generally scarlet, but there are yellow and white-flowered as well as double-flowered varieties, and a form with