PIMPERNEL n.
A plant of the genus Anagallis, of which one species (A. arvensis) has small flowers, usually scarlet, but sometimes purple, blue, or white, which speedily close at the approach of bad weather. Water pimpernel. (Bot.) See Brookweed.
PIPE n.
A cask usually containing two hogsheads, or 126 wine gallons; also, the quantity which it contains. Pipe fitter, one who fits pipes together, or applies pipes, as to an engine or a building. -- Pipe fitting, a piece, as a coupling, an elbow, a valve, etc., used for connecting lengths of pipe or as accessory to a pipe.…
PITHY a.
d all agreed. Dryden. In all these Goodman Fact was very short, but pithy. Addison. Pithy gall (Zoöl.), a large, rough, furrowed, oblong gall, formed on blackberry canes by a small gallfly (Diastrophus nebulosus).
POOR a.
ison. [Eng] Dr. Prior. -- Poor man's weatherglass (Bot.), the red-flowered pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), which opens its blossoms only in fair weather. -- Poor rate, an assessment or tax, as in an English parish, for the relief or support of the poor. -- Poor soldier (Zoöl.), the friar bird. -- The poor, those wh…
PRAGMATIC; PRAGMATICAL a.
issued by Charles VII. of France, A. D. 1438, was the foundation of the liberties of the Gallican church; the other, issued by Charles VI. of Germany, A. D. 1724, settled his hereditary dominions on his eldest daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa.