Petunia

3697

Phallus

 

rank with non-commissioned officers of the
army. They include all grades below those
of warrant officer, and above those of sea-
man, fireman, etc. In the United States
Navy, petty officers are of four grades—
chief petty officers, and petty officers of the
first, second, and third class.
Petunia, a genus of herbaceous plants be-
longing to the order Solanaceae, mostly
South American. They bear showy flowers
with funnel-shaped corollas of every imag-
inable shade and are easily cultivated in
sunny, warm places.
Pewee. A name in the United States for
several small flycatchers of the family Ty-
i-annidae, all of which are prevailingly olive-
,u;reen in color. There are six or eight species,
of which the most familiar are the bridge,
wood, and least pewees.
Pe\vs, permanent church seats, alluded to
in a canon of Exeter (1281) and in Piers
Plowman. Originally a pew was a box en-
closure entered through a door and re-
served for a specific family, but the term
now signifies a church seat with a back.
Pewter, an alloy, of 80 per cent, tin with
to per cent. lead. It is a soft metal, some-
what darker and duller than tin in appear-
ance. Pewter was formerly much employed
for making plates and drinking cups, and
has recently been used again largely for the
manufacture of ornamental and decorative
articles.
Peyote Worship, a religious practice
among the Indians in Mexico and the south-
western part of the United States in which
several species of plants are eaten to pro-
duce a state of excitement. The name seems
to be of Aztec origin.
Pforzheim, tn., grand-duchy of Baden,
Germany, 22 miles by rail e.s.e. of Ettlin-
gen, on n. slopes of Black Forest. It manu-
factures gold and silver ornaments, chemi-
cals, paper, and machinery; p. 79,000.
Phaeacians, a people mentioned in Homer's
Odyssey as inhabiting an island, Scheria.
They were a luxurious race, and skilled
sailors;, their king was Alcinous. Odysseus
was wrecked on their coast, and hospitably
received by the king.
Phaedon, or Phaedo, Greek philosopher,
a native of Elis, after whom Plato's dia-
logue describing Socrates's last hours is
called. He founded a school of philosophy
at Elis, but his writings are lost,
Phaedra, in ancient Greek mythology, a
daughter of Minos by Pasiphae, and the
wife of Theseus* Theseus had a son, Hip-

polytus, by a former marriage, with whom
Phaedra fell in love; but Phaedra, seeing her
love was hopeless, killed herself. This is
Euripides's version of the story, finely drama-
tized in Euripides's Hippolytus, which Ra-
cine has copied in his Phedre.
Phaedrus. An Athenian and friend of
Plato, who called one of his dialogues after
him, and also introduced him as a char-
acter in the Symposium (see Plato's Phce-
drus}. He wrote ninet}^r-seven fables in
Latin iambic verse. The best fables are
those which are closest to JEsop, whom
Phsedrus professes to follow.
Phaethon, an ancient Greek name for the
sun-god, but more often employed of a son
of the sun-god, Helius. When a youth he
started to drive the chariot of the sun, but
Zeus killed Phaethon with a thunderbolt to
check his career, and he fell into the river
Eridanus (the Po).
Phaeton, an open four-wheeled pleasure
carriage drawn by one or two horses; named
after Phaethon, the sun-god.
Phagocytes, or Eating-cells, a name
given by Metschnikoff to the leucocytes, or
white blood-corpuscles. See blood.
Phalanx, the name applied to the ordinary
formation adopted by Greek heavy-armed in-
fantry. The Macedonian phalanx was an im-
provement on the Greek formation, in that
the men stood in a rather more open order,
sixteen deep, armed with spears twenty-one
ft. long. Philip and Alexander employed the
phalanx of infantry to engage the enemy's
attention, while they decided their battles by
their cavalry.
Phalaris, a genus of grasses, bearing their
inflorescences in spikelike panicles. The an-
nual canary grass, P. canariensis, is also some-
times cultivated. Its seed is sold as food for
singing-birds.
Phalaris, tyrant of the Greek town Acragas
(Agrigentum), in Sicily; reigned about 560
b.c. for some ten or fifteen years. He is said
to have roasted men alive in a brazen bull.
Phalarope (Phalaropus), a genus of limi-
coline birds belonging to the family Phalaro-
podidse. The three species may be recognized
by the fact that the three anterior toes are
furnished with lobehke expansions recalling
those of the coot.
Phallus and Phallic Worship, one of the
several phases of the worship of the repro-
ductive powers of nature—a worship com*
mon to most early or primitive races. As a
natural consequence, the symbols of sex, more
or less crudely represented, figure prominent-