Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/669

* PYTHIAS. 585 PYXIE. 00,000, representing an insurance of nearly $102,- 500,000, and had disbursed up to that date $18,- 105.000. The Uniform Rank is another division of the order. It is under the control of the Supreme Lodge also, but is directed by an officer whose title is major-general. The members of this grade are on the same plane with the other menibei's. but only those members who have re- ceived the rank of Knight are eligible for mem- bership. At the close of 1002 there were about 900 companies in the Uniformed Rank with a membership of nearly 45,000. Pythian Knight- liiiod confers three ranks or degrees, viz.: The initiatory rank of 'page;' the armorial rank of ■esquire;' and the chivalric rank of 'knight.' The motto of the order is : "Be generous, brave, and true." The Order of Rathbone Sisters, organized in 1.S88. is made up of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of Knights of Pythias, and such Knights as may desire to be associated with the organization. The membership in 1902 was about 50,000 sisters and 25,000 Knights. P Y'THON ( Lat., from Gk. Uieuiv. from Tluffii, PythO. Jv$Civ, Python, older name of Delphi and the surrounding region). In Greek mythology, a horrible serpent produced from the slime of America, and Xew Zealand. The long vertebral column is made up of from 115 to 130 vertebrae, both pairs of limbs are modified into paddles for swimming; the long depressed skull is lizard-like, and the mandibles could be moved in a horizontal plane, thereby enabling them to swallow large prey. The jaws are provided with large conical teeth of formidable aspect. These animals were essentiall}- .sea serpents. The best specimens have been obtained from the, chalk beds of Kansas. Tylosaurus, of which a finely preserved complete skeleton showing even the cartilages may be seen in the American Museum of Natural History in Xew York City, had a length of 30 feet. Plate- carpus is a similar, smaller animal with body from 10 to 15 feet long, abundant in the Cretace- ous of the Western United States and France. Clidastes was one of the smallest members of the group with a body 6 to 12 feet long, and is from the Cretaceous of the United States. Mosasaurus, with its jaws armed with powerful teeth, was the largest (jf the group and attained a length of 40 feet. It is found in the Upper Cretaceous of Western Europe and of the United States. BiBLioGR.PHY. Von Zittel and Eastman, Textbook of Palceontology, vol. ii. (London and New York, 1902) ; Williston, "On Mosasaurs, ^ ffiB ^S I(M ms: a rj:t^ "•=<■ PLATECARPUS CORYPH.EU8 (restored). Deucalion's flood. Ho lived in Parnassus and was slain by Apollo. PYTHON. Any large snake of the subfamily Pythonidoe of the family Boidie. The pythons differ from the boas (q.v. ) in such anatomical particu- lars as the presence of certain supraorbital bones, and two rows of subcaudal scales. The best known species is the common 'adjiga' or 'roek-snake' {Python molurus) of Ceylon. India, and eastward to China, specimens of which have been seen 30 feet long. It is yellowish, with a series of large, reddish " brown, "dark-edged patches along the back, and another of smaller blotches on the sides. A snake 30 feet long could undoubtedlj- over- come a tiger, bear, or buft'alo under favorable conditions, as has been related of these monsters. Another very large species of the Indo-China and Malayan region is Python retictilatus. more com- mon eastward than the rock-snake, and marked in a lozenge pattern. Their habits are described at length in the (London) Field for 1894 and in the Proceedings of the Zoiilogical Society of London for 1899, pages 631-634. Africa possesses several beautiful pythons, especially numerous on the equatorial west coast, where they are ven- erated by certain tribes and kept and tended in temples. All the pythons lend themselves easily to captivity and taming. These snakes lay a hundred or so eggs, which are regularly in- cubated by the female. PYTHONOMOR'PHA (Neo-Lat. nom. pi., from Python, python -|- Gk. fioprpri, morphf, form). A suborder of extinct marine reptiles of serpent-like appearance, found fossil in the Up- per Cretaceous rocks of Europe, North and South etc.," Kansas University Quarterly, vol. ii. (Law- rence, 1893) ; also in University Geological Sur- vey of Kansas, vol. iv. (Topeka, 1898) ; Willis- ton and Case, "Kansas Mosasaurs," Kansas Uni- versity Quarterly, vol. i. (Lawrence, 1892) ; Os- born, "A Complete Mosasaur Skeleton," Me- moirs of the American. Museum of Xatural His- tory, vol. i., part iv. (New York, 1899). PYX, piks (Lat. pyxis, from Gk. jruf/s, box, from TTv^oi.pyxos, box-tree, boxwood). The sacred vessel used in the Roman Catholic Church to con- tain the consecrated host. Anciently it was some- times of the form of a dove, which was hung sus- pended over the altar, ilore commonly, however, it was, as its name implies, a simple box, gen- erally of the precious metals, or, at least, of metal plated with gold or silver, sometimes of ivory, whose use, however, was forbidden in 1588. At present the pyx is commonly cup-sha|)ed, with a close-fitting cover of the same material. The in- terior is ordered to be of gold, or at least plated with gold. The tabernacle from which the pyx hung over the altar received from it the name clioriuni, which is now often applied to the pyx itself. A special class of pyx is that containing relics, which may be of silver or ivory. PYXIE, Pine B.4.rren Beauty, Flowebejo Moss {Pyxidmithcra harbulata) . A small creep- ing shrub of the natural order Diapensiaceae. It is a common plant in New .Jersey and North Carolina upon moist, sandy soil, and is esteemed for its pink buds and white, five-petaled blossoms, which appear in early spring. It is rarely culti- vated, though the llowers are often sold in cities near where the plants grow wild.