LIBRARY UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE. BEING A REPRINT ENTIRE OF THE LAST (1879) EDINBURGH AND LONDON EDITION A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the Yeople. WITH VERY LARGE ADDITIONS UPON TOPICS OF SPECIAL IN TWENTY-ONE VOLUMES. VOL 11. NEW YORK: AMERICAN BOOK EXCHANGE, TRIBUNE BUILDING. 1880. B.Lat-9108,79 Botaw, Sab 1898 June 23 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY TRANSFERRED FROM BOTANICAL MUSEUM LIBRARY FEB. 26, 1934 LIERARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE. PASQUE FLOWER (Pulsatilla), a genus of plants of the natural order Ranunculacea, by many botanists still included in Anemone, the chief distinguishing characteristic being the long feathery awns of the fruit. The species are perennial, silky, herbaceous plants, with doubly pinnatifid or doubly trifid leaves, and a simple oneflowered scape. They are narcotic, acrid, and poisonous. The Common P. (Pulsatilla vulgaris or Anemone pulsatilla) is a native of many parts of Europe, and of chalky pastures in several parts of England. It has widely bell-shaped bluish-purple flowers. Another species, P. or A. pratensis, a native of the continent of Europe, not of Britain, has smaller and more perfectly bell-shaped blackish-purple flowers.These plants emit, when bruised, a pungent smell; and contain, as their principal constituent, a peculiar pungent essential oil, which, in combination with Anemonic Acid, forms an acrid and very inflammable substance called Anemonine, or Pulsatilla Camphor, and is sometimes used in medicine. Pulsatilla is a favorite medicine of the homœopathists. Easter Eggs are colored purple in some places by the petals of the pasque flower.-More acrid than any of the species just named is Pulsatilla patens, which occasionally even blisters the skin. PASQUINA'DE, an anonymous or pseudonymous publication of small size, sometimes printed, sometimes only posted up or circulated in manuscript, and having for its object the defamation of a character, or at least the turning of a person to ridicule. The name is derived from Pasquino, a tailor remarkable for his wit and sarcastic humor, who lived in Rome towards the close of the 15th c., and attracted many to his shop by his sharp and lively sayings. Some time after his death, a mutilated fragment of an ancient statue, considered to represent Menelaus supporting the dead body of Patroclus, was dug up opposite his shop, and placed at the end of the Braschi Palace, near the Piazza Navoni. It was named after the defunct tailor, and thus the practice originated of affixing to it placards containing satires and jests relative to the affairs of the day-the pope and the cardinals being favorite victims of the invisible satirists. It till recently continued to be the only outlet which the Roman had for his opinions and feelings. One or two may be quoted as specimens of the mordant style of the Pasquin statue. sums," said the satirist one day, in an epigram addressed to Pope Paul III., "were formerly given to poets for singing; how much will you give me, O Paul, to be silent ?"-On the marriage of a young Roman called Cesare to a girl called Roma, the statue gave the following advice: "Cave, Cæsar, ne tua Roma respublica fiat." Next day the rival statue of Marforio, in the Capitol, replied: "Cæsar imperat;" to which Pasquin with exquisite malice retorted:"" Ergo coronabitur." "Great PA'SSAGE, West, a seaport town upon the western shore of the estuary of the river Lee, in the county of Cork, Ireland, which has risen into importance chiefly as a watering-place, and as the shipping-port and marine suburb of the city of Cork, (1) |
