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 PROVOST PRUNING lain to the continental congress in 1785, and to the senate of the United States in 1789. Having been elected bishop of New York in June, 1786, he accompanied Dr. William White to England, and was consecrated with him, Feb. 4, 1787, at Lambeth palace. In 1800, on account of his health, he resigned the rector- ship of Trinity church, and in 1801 the epis- copal office. The latter resignation was not accepted by the house of bishops, and Dr. Benjamin Moore was chosen his coadjutor. PROVOST, Jean Baptist* Franfote, a French actor, born Jan. 29, 1798, died Dec. 24, 1865. He studied at the conservatory in Paris, and became professor of elocution in 1839. He played at the Odeon theatre from 1819 to 1828, and at .that of Porte Saint Martin till 1835, when ho appeared at the Theatre Francais, of which he became a member in 1839. His most celebrated roles as a tragedian were Claude in Valeria (1852), the marquis de Rieux in Due Job (1858), the banker Oharrier in Augier's Ejfrontet, and the deputy marshal in the same author's Le Jilt de Oiboyer (1863-'4). PillI)E.THS, Aurolins Clemens, a Latin poet, born in Spain in A. D. 848, died early in the 5th century. He was a lawyer, became a civil and criminal judge, and was appointed to a high military station at court. In his later years he devoted himself to religious exercises and study. His extant poems are : Prctfatio, giving a catalogue of his works up to his 57th year, with a brief autobiography ; Cathemeri- non Liber, 12 sacred hymns, some of which have been inserted in the liturgy of the Ro- man Catholic church; Apotheosit, maintaining the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity; Hamartigenia, on the origin of sin, directed against the Marcionites; Psychoma- ehia, representing the struggle between virtue and vice in the soul, and tho triumph of the former ; Contra Symmachum Liber /., an ac- count of the conversion of Rome, with an ex- posure of the folly of the ancient religion ; Contra Symmachum Liber II., a refutation of the argument of Symmochus in his petition to the emperor Valentinian ; Peri Stephanon Liber, 14 poems in honor of martyred saints; Diptychon or Dittochaon, 48 poems in heroic hexameters, 24 describing events and charac- ters in the Old Testament, and 24 in the New, about tho authenticity of which there has been much controversy; and the Epilogui. The earliest dated edition of his works is that of Deventer (1472); the best is thnt of Faustus Arevalus (2 vols. 4to, Rome, 1788-'9). His works are also published in vols. lix. and Ix. of Migne's Patrologie Intine. See Bayle, Ca- themerinon, traduit et annote., arec une etude sur Prudence (8vo, Paris, 1860). PRUD'OOX, Pierre Ptnl, a French painter, born at Cluny, April 4, 1758, died in Paris, Feb. 16, 1823. He was educated by charity, developed a taste for art, and was placed under the tuition of Devosges at Dijon. Having won a prize awarded by tho states of Burgundy, he went to Rome, where he became intimate with Canova. In 1789 he went to Paris, where he supported himself by painting miniatures and making drawings for concert tickets, bill heads, tradesmen's cards, and confectionery boxes. In 1794 he went to Rigney, near Gray, and executed a series of pastel portraits for which he received a handsome price. On his return to Paris he won a prize for an allegorical drawing, representing "Wisdom and Virtue descending upon earth." In 1805 he painted on a ceiling in the museum of the Louvre "Diana imploring Jupiter;" and in 1808, for the hall of the criminal court, "Justice and Divine Vengeance pursuing Crime." For this he received from Napoleon tho cross of the legion of honor, was appointed teacher to the empress Maria Louisa, and became a member of the institute. He painted " Psyche borne away by the Zephyrs" (1808), "Zephyr bal- ancing himself upon the Water," a portrait of the king of Rome, "Venus and Adonis" (1810), "Andromache" (1817), and "The As- sumption " (1819). In 1821 his pupil Constance Mayer, for whom ho entertained a warm affec- tion, put an end to her life, and thenceforth he pined away. He nevertheless completed "The Indigent Family," the rough draught of which had been left by his unfortunate pupil, and "Christ dying upon the Cross," which was exhibited after his death. PKIXK. See PLUM. PttlMXG, a most important horticultural operation, which consists in removing a por- tion of a plant for the benefit of that which re- mains. The operation may bo required by all plants which have an above-ground stem, even the most delicate. It is performed either to induce a vigorous growth, or to diminish vigor and dwarf a plant; a tree which does not bear is pruned to increase its fruitfulness, or it may be pruned to prevent over production. It requires to be done understanding!)' ; and so much injury has resulted from indiscriminate pruning, that certain cultivators go to an op- posite extreme, and advise not to prune at all. Where trees grow in a dense forest we find tall straight trunks without a branch for 50 ft or more, and at the top a small branching head, that in size is quite out of proportion to the trunk ; when such trees are felled and sawed into boards, we see by the knots that a natu- ral pruning has been carried on for years ; tho lower branches of the trees were so excluded from the light by the growing tops that they were smothered and fell away, while the wounds were closed so neatly that no external indication of their presence is manifest. Trees of the same species with those which grow in the forest, when found as isolated specimens, are much shorter, but clothed with branches from the base upward. In this country pru- ning has until recently been regarded as be- longing only to fruit trees, but in those parts of Europe where forestry is a distinct art, forest trees are pruned with a view to their