eggs are lost. The general calculation, however, is twelve living fish for a penny.

The total number of all kinds of fishes distributed from Huningue, during the first ten years was upwards of 110 millions! See HUNINGUE.

A very successful effort in pisciculture has been carried out in connection with the salmon-fisheries of the river Tay. At Stormontfield, near Perth, a series of ponds have been constructed, and a range of breeding-boxes laid down capable of receiving 300,000 eggs; and in a large addition to their rental, the proprietors of the Tay fisheries are reaping the reward of their enterprise. The operations at Stormontfield were begun in 1853, and from the end of November till the end of December, 300,000 ova were deposited, and these coming to life in April 1854, remained in the boxes and ponds one half for one year, and the other moiety for two years before they assumed the scales of the smolt, and were seized with the migratory instinct. See SALMON. Every two years since the completion of the ponds, a brood has been obtained, and upwards of one million of salmon have by means of these ponds been added to the fish-stock of the river Tay, so as considerably to enhance the value of the fisheries. Another pond (there was only one originally) has now been added to the suite, for the purpose of holding the second-year parrs, so that a brood of 300,000 will now be obtained annually. At several other places in Scotland, the artificial system is being introduced as an adjunct to the natural breeding resources of different rivers.

The art of pisciculture has also been introduced into Ireland, at the fisheries of Loughs Mask and Carra, by the Messrs Ashworth, who have obtained excellent practical results from their enterprise. These lochs contain an area of water equal to thirty-five acres; and a communication with the sea having been opened, they now teem with salmon; and the proprietors are confident that it is as easy and as profitable to cultivate salmon as sheep. The latest experiment in fish-culture with the salmon consists in the introduction of that fish into Australia and Tasmania. Impregnated eggs carefully packed in ice were sent out in a fast-sailing ship, and were at once transferred to a suitable river, where (1864) they burst into life, with every prospect of becoming naturalised in that vast continent.

A series of piscicultural experiments have been very successfully carried on in the upper waters of the Thames, and the salmon has been bred along with various other fishes, upwards of 120,000 fishes having been added to the stock of the river; but the success of this experiment yet remains to be deter mined, as it is not certain whether the salmon will be able to penetrate to the sea, in consequence of the lower Thames being used as the sewer of London.

This branch of pisciculture has begun to be prosecuted to some extent in several countries of Europe, and has been deemed of sufficient import ance to demand the attention of governments. It is probable that the attention turned to the whole subject of pisciculture, and the example of the transportation of salmon to Australia, may lead to

the introduction of valuable kinds of fishes into waters where they are now unknown. The grayling has thus already been introduced into the Clyde and Tweed. There is no apparent reason why every valuable fresh-water fish of Europe should not be plentiful in Britain.

The French government are now extending the system of artificial culture to some kinds of sea-fish and to many of the larger crustaceans. See OYSTER. At Comacchio (q. v.), on the Adriatic, a curious industry is carried on in the cultivation of eels; and in the Bay of Aiguillon, there is an ancient mussel-farm in which large quantities of that shellfish are annually grown from the seed, and turned to very profitable account. There is no practical difficulty, it is said, in rendering an acre of water as productive as an acre of land.

Piscina, Warmington.

PISCINA, the large basin (or pond) in the Roman thermæ, containing tepid water, in which the bather might swim. PISCINA, a shallow

stone basin with a drain (usually leading directly to the earth), in Roman Catholic churches, in which the priest washes his hands, and for rinsing the chalice at the celebration of the mass.

In England, it is almost invariably placed on the south side of the choir, at a convenient height. PI'SÉ, a kind of work used instead of brick, &c., for the walls of cottages. It consists of loam or earth hard rammed into framing, which, when dry,

forms a wall.

PI'SEK (Boh. Piscek, sand), a small town of Bohemia, on the right bank of the Wottawa, an affluent of the Moldau, stands on a sandy plain (from which circumstance it probably received its name) 55 miles south-south-west of Prague. The town is old, and contains the remains of a royal castle. Among other institutions are a school of arts and a high school. The manufactures are woollen and cotton fabrics, iron wire, and musical instruments. Pop. 6100.

PISHAMIN. See DATE PLUM.

PI'SOLITE (Gr. pea-stone), a concretionary limestone, differing from oolite in the particles being as large as pease.

PISTA'CIA, a genus of trees of the natural order Anacardiacea, having dicecious flowers without petals, and a dry drupe with a bony stone.-The PISTACIA or PISTACHIO TREE (P. vera) is a small tree of about 20 feet high, a native of Persia and Syria, but now cultivated in all parts of the south of Europe and North of Africa, and in many places naturalised. It has pinnate leaves, with about two pair of ovate leaflets, and an odd one; flowers in racemes; fruit ovate, and about the size of an olive. The stone or nut splits into two valves when ripe; the kernel, which is of a bright green colour, is very oleaginous, of a delicate flavour, and in its properties very much resembles the sweet almond. In the south of Europe and in the East, Pistachio nuts are much esteemed; but as they very readily become rancid, they are little exported to other countries. They are sometimes called Green Almonds. Oil is expressed from them for culinary and other In cultivation, one male tree is allowed to

uses.

five or six fertile ones. The tree produces dowers and even fruit readily enough in the south of England, but the summers are not warm enough to ripen the fruit, and the tree is apt to be destroyed by a severe frost.-The MASTIC TREE, or LENTISK (P. lentiscus), yields the gum-resin called Mastic (q. v.). It is a native of the countries around the Mediterranean.-The TURPENTINE TREE (P. terebinthus) yields the Turpentine (q. v.) known in commerce as Cyprus Turpentine, Chian Turpentine, or Scio Turpentine, which is of a consistency somewhat like that of honey, a greenish-yellow colour, an agreeable odour, and a mild taste, and in its properties resembles the turpentine of the Conifera, but is free from acridity. It is obtained by making incisions in the trees, and placing stones for the turpentine to flow upon, from which it is scraped in the morning, before it is liquefied again by the heat of the sun. The tree is about 30 or 35 feet in height; and has pinnate leaves, of about three pair of leaflets and an odd one; the flowers in compound racemes, the fruit nearly globular. The kernel of the fruit is oleaginous and pleasant.-The BATOUM TREE (P. Atlantica), a round-headed tree of about 40 feet in height, a native of the north of Africa, produces a fruit much used by the Arabs; and a gum-resin of pleasant aromatic smell and agreeable taste, which exudes from its stem and branches, is chewed to clean the teeth and impart a pleasant smell to the breath.-The fragrant oil of the kernels of P. oleosa, a native of Cochin China, is used by the people of that country to impart a perfume to ointments.

PI'STIL, in Botany, the female organ of fructifi cation in phanerogamous plants; that part of the Flower (q. v.) which, after flowering is over, is developed into the fruit. There is sometimes one pistil in a flower, sometimes more; in some flowers, of whorls, one within another, sometimes on an which have numerous pistils, they form a number elevated receptacle or elongated axis, or, more rarely, they are spirally arranged. In every case, the centre of the flower is occupied by the pistil or pistils, if present. See FLOWER. A pistil is either formed of a single Carpel (q. v.), as is the case when there are numerous pistils, or of several carpels combined; and the number of carpels of which the pistil is formed is often indicated by the number of the cells of the germen, or by its lobes or angles. The pistil usually consists of a Germen contained, and which is surmounted by a stigma, (q. v.) or ovary, in which the Ovules (q. v.) are either immediately or through the intervention of a style; but in Gymnogens (q. v.), there is neither germen, style, nor stigma, the female organs of fructification being mere naked ovules. germen is always the lowest part of the pistil. The stigma exhibits an endless variety of forms, and is adapted to the reception and retention of the pollen grains requisite for fecundation, partly by the roughness of its surface-which is of a some what lax cellular tissue, covered with project.ng cells, often in the form of minute warts, and often elongated into hairs-and partly by the secretion of a viscous fluid. The stigma when not sessile-or seated immediately on the germen-is supported by the style, which rises from the germen, and on the top of which the stigma is generally placed. The style is sometimes very long and slender, sometimes very short; the germen sometimes passes imperceptibly into the style, and some times the style rises from it abruptly; and similar differences appear in the relations of the style and stigma; the stigma, however, may be regarded as always an expansion of the top of the style, although it is sometimes, but rarely, situated on one or both sides of the style, beneath its summit. In like

The

=

=

138. 9d.; of Venice 168. 24d.; of Florence and Parma 168. Id.; and the old coin of Piedmont £1, 28. 7 d., or 24 old liras. These will, however, in all probability, be soon superseded by the new pistole of 20 liras, or francs, which is equivalent to 16s. sterling. Gold coins of this name are current in Hesse-Cassel, Switzerland, Brunswick, and Hamburg, but are in most cases merely convenient multiples of the ordinary thaler and gulden. PI'SUM. See PEA.

PIT, in Gardening, is an excavation in the ground, intended to be covered by a Frame (q. v.), and to afford protection to tender plants in winter, or for the forcing of vegetables, fruits, &c. Pits are often walled on all sides, although, in many cottage gardens, excellent use is made of pits which are mere excavations. The walls are often raised above the ground, particularly the back wall, the more readily to give slope to the glazed frame. A pit in which no artificial heat is supplied, is called a cold pit; but when forcing is intended, flued pits are often used. Artificial heat is sometimes also given by means of fermenting matter. The ventilation of pits, as much as the weather will permit, is of the greatest importance.

PITA-HEMP, one of the names of the Agave or

Aloe fibre. See AGAVE.

PITAKA (literally, 'basket') is, with the Buddhists, a term denoting a division of their sacred literature, and occurs especially in combination with tri, three;' tripitaka meaning the three great divisions of their canonical works, the Vinaya (discipline), Abhidharma (metaphysics), and Sûtra (aphorisms in prose), and collectively, therefore, the whole Buddhistic code. The term basket' was applied to these divisions, because the palm-leaves on which these works were written were kept in baskets, which thus became a part of the professional utensils of a Bhikshu, or religious mendicant. PITCAIRN ISLAND, a solitary island in the Pacific Ocean, lying at the south-eastern corner of the great Polynesian Archipelago, in lat. 25° 3′ 6′′ S., and long. 130° 6' W. Its length (21 miles) is about twice its breadth, and the total content is approximately 1 square miles; so that, except from its being the only station (with the exception of the Gambier Islands) between the South American coast and Otaheite at which fresh water can be procured, it would be too insignificant to deserve notice, were it not for the manner in which it was colonised. The island is wholly surrounded by rocks; it has no harbour, and its soil is not very fertile. It was occupied in 1790 by the mutineers of the Bounty (see BLIGH, WILLIAM), who, after touching at Toobouai, sailed for Tahiti, where they remained for some time. Christian, the leader of the mutineers, however, fearing pursuit, hastened their departure; and after leaving a number of their comrades who preferred to stay on the island, they brought off with them 18 natives, and sailed eastward, reaching P. I., where they took up their residence, and burned the Bounty. They numbered then 9 British sailors-for 16 of the sailors had preferred to remain at Tahiti, and of these, 14 were subsequently captured, and (September 1792) three of them executed-and 6 Tahitian men, with 12 women. It was impossible for concord to subsist in a band of such desperate character; and, in the course of the next ten years, all the Tahitian men, all the sailors, with the exception of Alexander Smith (who subsequently changed his name to John Adams), and several of the women, had died by violence or disease. From the time of their leaving Tahiti, nothing had been heard of them, and their fate was only known when an American, Captain

Folger, touched at P. I. in 1808, and on his return, reported his discovery to the British government; but no steps appear to have been taken by the latter. On September 17, 1814, a British vessel, the Britain, called at the island, and found old Adams still alive, commanding the respect and admiration of the whole little colony, by his exemplary conduct and fatherly care of them. Solitude had wrought a powerful change in Adams; and his endeavours to instil into the young minds of his old companions' descendants a correct sense of religion, had been crowned with complete success, for a more virtuous, amiable, and religions community than these islanders, had never been and 1830, and the reports transmitted concerning seen. They were visited by British vessels in 1825 them were fully corroborative of the previous accounts; but, in 1831, their numbers (87) had become too great for the island, and at their own request, they were transported to Tahiti, in the Lucy Ann, by the British government. But, disgusted at the immorality of their Tahitian friends and relatives, they chartered a vessel, defraying the cost of it in great part with the copper bolts of the Bounty, and most of them returned to P. I. at the end of nine months. In 1839, being visited by Captain Elliot of H.M.S. Fly, they besought to be taken under the protection of Britain, on account of the annoyances to which they had been subjected by the lawless crews of some whale-ships which had called at the island; and, accordingly, Captain Elliot took possession of it in the name of Her Majesty, gave them a Union Jack, and recognised their self-elected magistrate as the responsible governor. He also drew up for them a code of laws, some of which are amusing from the subjects of which they treat, but the code was of great use to the simple islanders. From this time, they were frequently visited by European ships; and, in 1855, finding their numbers again too great for the island, they petitioned government to grant them the much more productive Norfolk Island, to which they were accordingly removed in 1856. In 1859, however, two families, numbering in all 17, returned to P. I., reducing the number of those left on Norfolk Island to 202. From their frequent intercourse with Europeans, the Pitcairn Islanders have, while still retaining their virtuous simplicity of character and cheerful hospitable disposition, acquired the manners and polish of civilised life, with its education and taste. They are passionately fond of music and dancing, the latter evidently a legacy from their maternal ancestry. The men are engaged in whaling and herding cattle, or in cultivating their gardens and plantations; while the women (who seem to be the more industrious class) attend to their families, manage the dairies, and take an occasional part in field-labour.

P. I. was first discovered by Carteret in 1767, and was named by him after one of his officers; but it was never visited by Europeans till taken possession of by the mutineers, though the latter found satisfactory indications of its having previously been occupied for a considerable period by savages, probably from the neighbouring islands.

PITCH. The common kind of pitch is the black residue which remains after distilling wood-tar. See TAR. It is made extensively in Russia, Norway, and North America. It is a most useful material for protecting wood from the action of water, hence it is used for calking the seams, and coating the outsides of ships and boats; it is also applied to the inside of water-casks, and many similar uses. A variety of pitch is now obtained from the distillation of coal-tar, and another from bone-tar: the latter is said to be nearly equal in

value to that from wood, but coal-pitch wants the toughness which is one of the more valuable qualities of wood-pitch. It is, however, much used in making artificial asphalt for building and paving purposes; and for the black varnish used for coating iron-work to keep it from rusting. Pitch is solid at the ordinary temperature of our climate, but softens and melts with a small accession of heat.

PITCH, BURGUNDY. See BURGUNDY PITCH. PITCH, the degree of acuteness of musical sounds. A musical sound is produced by a series of vibrations recurring on the ear at precisely equal intervals; the greater the number of vibrations in a given time, the more acute or higher is the pitch. In stringed instruments, the pitch is dependent on the length, the thickness, and the degree of tension of the strings; the shorter and thinner a string is, and the greater its tension, the higher is the pitch of the note. In wind instruments, where the notes are produced by the vibration of a column of air, as in the mouth-pipes of an organ, the pitch is dependent on the length of the column set in motion; the shorter the column of air, the higher the pitch becomes.

The pitch of musical instruments is adjusted by means of a tuning-fork, consisting of two prongs springing out of a handle, so adjusted as to length that, when struck, a particular note is produced, that note being C

in Britain, and A

in Germany. It is obviously important to have a recognised standard of pitch, by which instruments and voices are to be regulated; but there is, unfortunately, not the uniformity that might be desired in the pitch in actual use. For a long time prior to 1859, concert-pitch had been gradually rising, to the detriment of the voices of public singers. The C tuning-fork, in use in 1699, made 489 vibrations per second, while in 1859, the number of vibrations had increased to 538. Mr Hullah, in 1842, in the numerous classes instituted by him under the sanction of the Committee of Council on Education, found it necessary to secure a uniform standard of pitch, and adopted 512, which has an especial convenience as being a power of 2. The French Imperial government, in 1858, fixed on 522. In 1859, a Committee of the Society of Arts was appointed to consider the subject of a uniform musical pitch. Their deliberations lasted 12 months. Sir John Herschel, in a letter to the Committee, strongly recommended the number 512. It was agreed on all hands that the then existing opera-pitch of 546 was too high and painful to the singers of soprano music. The instrumental performers stated that they could lower the pitch to 528, but if they had to lower it to 512, some of them would have to purchase new instruments; and, in consequence apparently of their representation, the Committee reported in favour of 528.

PITCHBLENDE, a mineral which is essentially Oxide of Uranium (q. v.), with slight mixtures of other substances. Its colour is grayish-black or brownish-black. It is infusible before the blowpipe, without the addition of borax, with which it fuses into a dull yellow glass.

PITCHER PLANT. See NEPENTHES. PITCHSTONE, a name sometimes given to a variety of common Opal (q. v.), brown, black, gray, red, or of mixed colours; the lustre more resinous than in opal, and the fracture less perfectly conchoidal. It occurs in several localities in the British Islands, in Saxony, &c.-The same name is given to another mineral (Ger. Pechstein), a variety

of Felspar (q. v.), occurring as a rock in dikes which traverse strata or in overlying masses; compact, slaty, or in concentric slaty concretions. It exhibits great variety of colour, and has a somewhat resinous appearance. It often contains numerous imbedded crystals of felspar, and is then called P. porphyry.

PITCHURIM BEANS, or SASSAFRAS NUTS, an occasional article of importation from South America, are the seed-lobes of Nectandra Puchury, a tree of the same genus with the Greenheart (q. v.), growing on the banks of the Rio Negro and else where in the rich alluvial parts of the basin of the Amazon. They are about an inch and a half long, and half an inch broad. They are much in request among chocolate manufacturers for flavouring chocolate, as a substitute for vanilla. They are sometimes called Wild Nutmegs, because of a The name resemblance to nutmeg in flavour. Sassafras Nuts is also due to the flavour, which approaches that of Sassafras bark; and the tree belongs to the same natural order with the Sassafras tree.

PITH (Medulla), the light cellular substance which occupies the centre of the stem and branches in Exogenous Plants (q. v.). In the earliest stage of a young stem or branch, it is entirely composed of pith and bark, by which alone, therefore, young buds are nourished; the vascular bundles or woody fibre appearing afterwards, and in trees and shrubs, generally increasing, so as to constitute the greater part of the substance of the stem and branches, whilst the pith is ultimately reduced to a very small column in the centre. The pith, however, exists even in the most mature woody stem, and maintains its connection with the bark by means of Medullary Rays, analogous in their character to the pith itself, and which exist even in the most compact wood, although much compressed by the woody layers, and in a transverse section appearing as mere lines. The medullary rays convey to the central parts of the stem the secretions of the bark necessary for their nourishment. P. is in general entirely composed of cellular tissue; vessels occurring in it only in a few plants. Its cells diminish in size from the centre towards the circumference. In a few plants, it exhibits cavities which have a regular arrangement; in many herbaceous plants of rank growth, large irregular cavities occur in it. The pith is immediately surrounded by a thin vascular layer called the Medullary Sheath, consisting chiefly of spiral vessels, which continue to exercise their functions during the life of the plant. PITHE CIA. See SAKI.

=

PITHECUS. See ORANG.

PITON BARK. See CARIBBEE BARK.

PITR'I (a Sanscrit word literally meaning father Latin pater, in the plural Pitaras, but in English translations from the Sanscrit usually Anglicised to Pitris), a name which, in a general sense, means the deceased ancestors of a man, but in the denotes an order of divine beings inhabiting celesspecial sense in which it occurs in Hindu mythology, tial regions of their own, and receiving into their society the spirits of those mortals for whom the funeral rites (see S'RADDHA) have been duly performed. They include, therefore, collectively the manes of the deceased ancestors; but the principal Imembers of this order are beings of a different nature and origin. According to Manu, they were the sons of Marichi, Atri, Angiras, and the other R'ishis or saints produced by Manu, the son of Brahmâ; and from them issued the gods, demons, and men. According to several Purânas (q. v.), however, the first Pitr'is were the sons of the gods; and to reconcile this discrepancy, a legend relates