_Physician in Ordinary to the Queen_, the Physician who attends the Queen in ordinary cases of illness. _Pistil_, that part of a flower, generally in the centre, composed of the germ, style, and stigma, which receives the pollen or fertilizing dust of the stamens. _Pitt, William_, a celebrated English statesman, son of the Earl of Chatham. He was born, May 28, 1759, and at the age of twenty-three, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and soon afterward, Prime Minister. He died, January 23, 1806. _Political Economy_, the science which treats of the general causes affecting the production, distribution, and consumption, of articles of exchangeable value, in reference to their effects upon national wealth and welfare. _Pollen_, the fertilizing dust of flowers, produced by the stamens, and falling upon the pistils, in order to render a flower capable of producing fruit or seed. _Potter's clay_, the clay used in making articles of pottery. _Prairie_, a French word, signifying _meadow_. In the United States, it is applied to the remarkable natural meadows, or plains, which are found in the Western States. In some of these vast and nearly level plains, the traveller may wander for days, without meeting with wood or water, and see no object rising above the plane of the horizon. They are very fertile. _Prime Minister_, the person appointed by the ruler of a nation to have the chief direction and management of the public affairs. _Process_, a protuberance, or projecting part of a bone. _Pulmonary_, belonging to, or affecting, the lungs. _Pulmonary artery_, an artery which passes through the lungs, being divided into several branches, which form a beautiful network over the air-vessels, and finally empty themselves into the left auricle of the heart. _Puritans_, a sect, which professed to follow the pure word of God, in opposition to traditions, human constitutions, and other authorities. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, part of the Protestants were desirous of introducing a simpler, and, as they considered it, a _purer_, form of church government and worship, than that established by law; from which circumstance, they were called _Puritans_. In process of time, this party increased in numbers, and openly broke off from the Church, laying aside the English liturgy, and adopting a service-book published at Geneva, by the disciples of Calvin. They were treated with great rigor by the Government, and many of them left the kingdom and settled in Holland. Finding themselves not so eligibly situated in that Country, as they had expected to be, a portion of them embarked for America, and were the first settlers of New England. _Quixotic_, absurd, romantic, ridiculous; from _Don Quixote_, the hero of a celebrated fictitious work, written by Cervantes, a distinguished Spanish writer, and intended to reform the tastes and opinions of his countrymen. _Reeking_, smoking, emitting vapor. _Residuum_, the remainder, or part which remains.