were 4 m. S. of the position occupied on the 22d. It was evidently impossible to proceed further, and they began to retrace their steps, having reached as far N. as lat. 82° 45', the nearest point to the pole that had been reached by any expedition, and travelled in a direct line 172 m. from the ship, to accomplish which distance they had been obliged to pass over 668 m. of surface. They reached the Hecla after an absence of 61 days, and at the end of September arrived in England, where Capt. Parry published his "Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in Boats fitted for the Purpose" (1827), and resumed his duties as hydrographer to the admiralty. On April 29, 1829, he was knighted by George IV., Sir John Franklin receiving the same honor at the same time. Both these distinguished navigators also received from the university of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. Parry now received the appointment of commissioner of the Australian agricultural company, the mismanagement and neglect of whose agents had reduced their settlements to the condition of "a moral wilderness." He took ship July 20, 1829, and passed 5 years at Port Stephens, about 90 m. from Sydney. Returning to England in 1835, he received from the company a service of plate "in testimony of the high sense entertained of the benefits conferred by him on the colony during his residence there;" was appointed assistant commissioner of poor law for the county of Norfolk, an office which he was obliged to resign on account of his health at the end of 18 months; was employed by the admiralty in 1837 to organize the packet service between Liverpool, Holyhead, and Dublin; and in April of the same year received the newly created office of comptroller of steam machinery for the royal navy. During his term of office the use of steam in the navy, which had already been tried to a considerable extent, became almost universal, and the introduction of the screw propeller was in great measure owing to his persevering advocacy. In 1841, at the request of Sir Robert Peel, he drew up a report on the state of the Caledonian canal, in which he recommended its adaptation for vessels of large draught, a measure which was accordingly adopted. He retired from active service in Dec. 1846, with the appointment of captainsuperintendent of the royal Clarence yard and of the naval hospital at Haslar near Portsmouth, retaining this position until 1852, when he was compelled to vacate it on attaining the rank of rear admiral of the white. In the following year he was made lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital. In the summer of 1854 he was attacked by cholera, which entirely undermined his constitution, and induced him to go to Germany, where he died. Beside the narratives of his 4 voyages, he wrote a treatise

PARRY SOUND. See MELVILLE SOUND.
PARSEES. See GUEBRES.

PARSLEY (petroselinum sativum, Hoffman), an exogenous hardy biennial plant of the natural order apiacea. This order is composed of herbs with stems either solid or fistulous and furrowed, leaves usually divided and sheathing at base, and numerous small flowers borne in umbels and surrounded by an involucre; in color either white, pink, yellow, or blue; the fruit (commonly considered as the seed) consisting of 2 carpels separable from a common axis to which they adhere by their face (commissure), each carpel traversed by elevated ridges, of which 5 are primary, and 4 alternating with them are secondary; between these ridges are sometimes lodged receptacles of oily matter called vitte. The plants of this order are extremely rare in the hotter regions of the globe.-The common parsley is a native of Sardinia, and has been cultivated in gardens for 3 or more centuries. Its stem is angular, its leaves shining and tripinnate, the leaflets toothed; its flowers are borne in compound umbels furnished with general and partial involucres; the sepals abortive, the petals 5 and equal; the fruit ovate, contracted at the side, furnished with 5 narrow, equal ridges, the lateral ridge on the edge and each furrowed ridge with one vitta; the albumen plano-convex. The most usual form seen in gardens is what is called the double-leaved or curled-leaved, having a beautiful thick-leaved, curled, and crisp foliage, highly ornamental as well as of superior quality; this however is only a mere permanent variety of the plain-leaved or common form, which used to be solely raised for its leaves, and which is still cultivated. Another is known as the Hamburg, raised for the roots alone, which are cut up and employed in seasoning soups and stews, their superior size rendering them better than the roots of the other varieties. The leaves, as is well known, are the parts usually employed for the table, both for imparting flavor and as a garnish to meats. Parsley is sometimes sown among pasture grasses, to counteract by its presence the tendency to liver rot in sheep. In gardens it should be sown as early as possible in the spring, and a slight covering in winter is found advantageous to the young plants. The Hamburg should be thinned out frequently so that the plants may be allowed as much as 10 or 12 square inches of surface. In medicinal quality parsley is considered pleasant, stimulating, aromatic, and diuretic.

PARSNIP (pastinaca sativa, Linn.), a biennial, umbelliferous plant, growing wild in the chalky districts of England near the sea coast, and cultivated for the sake of its root, which has a sweet taste and nutritious qualities, and is used both as a table dish and for cattle. The common parsnip has an angular, furrowed stem, pinnated, smooth leaves, hairy beneath, the leaflets oblong, blunt, crenate-serrate, the terminal one 3-lobed; the flowers are yellow and

PARSON

borne in a compound umbel, usually without involucres; the calyx obsolete; the petals 5, lanceolate, involute, uniform, entire; the stamens 5, pistils 2; fruit thin, surrounded by a broad border, with oil receptacles (vitta), one in each furrow. The parsnip when growing wild by straying from gardens is materially affected in its nature and habits, and its root becomes small, strong, acrid, and virose; but under cultivation in a suitable soil, the root grows to a large size and penetrates the ground to a great depth. The soil it prefers is mellow, deep, and rich, and not apt to dry. The best flavored roots are produced in a soil inclining to sand rather than to loam. The ground in the garden should be spaded deep, as the quality of the crop depends much upon the length of the roots. The usual mode of cultivation is to sow them in drills and thin out as needed; they should be at least 6 inches apart if large roots are required, and sowed as early as possible in the spring; some prefer sowing in the previous autumn. When manure is used, it should be rotten and free from lumps and straw, and no great amount is needed, as the crop is not exhaustive. The early frosts of autumn do not affect the tops and roots, but there is no advantage in wintering them in the ground as some do, and the first renewal of growth in the spring causes them to become tough and have a bitter flavor. The best treatment is to dig them up in the autumn, taking care not to cut the roots, and not to trim off the tops too closely. A cool and dry cellar is better than one in which if stored they might sprout and grow. Some agricultural writers have recommended the parsnip as an excellent food for swine, and as useful for feeding and fattening all kinds of cattle. A variety called the coquaine, the roots of which sometimes run 4 feet deep, is raised in Jersey and Guernsey chiefly for feeding milch cows. According to Sir Humphry Davy (" Agricultural Chemistry"), in 1,000 parts there are 90 saccharine and 9 mucilaginous. In Scotland the roots are largely used for food by the peasantry; and when they are rasped raw and mixed with flour good bread is made of them. In Ireland a sort of beer is brewed from the roots; and wine is made in England by boiling them, adding a little sugar to the expressed juice, and fermenting by yeast, distillation affording a spirituous liquor. The best foreign varieties of the parsnip are the Guernsey, hollow-crowned, and round or turnip-rooted; and in the eastern New England states, the cup parsnip is decidedly preferred. The wild parsnip of American fields is a European exotic, and is regarded as a noxious weed.

PARSON (Lat. persona ecclesia), in English law, one having full possession of all the rights of a parochial church. (See PARISH.) He is a sole corporation, and possesses the rights of the church by perpetual succession. During his life he has a freehold estate in the glebe, and in the tithes, unless where they

are appropriated (sometimes called impropriated) to the lord of the manor or other patron of the living. The word parson has lost somewhat of the importance attached to the name; and 100 years ago Blackstone spoke of it as "depreciated by familiar, clownish, and indiscriminate use," but as still "the most legal, most beneficial, and most honorable title that a parish priest can enjoy." In the United States the word is not understood as having any legal or official meaning, but is commonly used as designating a minister of the gospel; but it is not often applied to a priest of the Roman Catholic or of the Episcopal church, and it has lost so much of its original solemn and official meaning, that it is commonly used in a familiar rather than a reverential or even respectful sense.

PARSONS, THEOPHILUS, an American jurist, born in Byfield, Essex co., Mass., Feb. 24, 1750, died in Boston, Oct. 30, 1813. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1769, and in the succeeding year commenced the study of the law in Falmouth, now Portland, Me., where he was admitted to the bar in July, 1774. During this interval he contributed to his support by teaching a school. He commenced practice with unusually brilliant prospects; but the almost total destruction of Falmouth by a British fleet, in Oct. 1775, having interrupted his career in that place, he returned to Byfield, and for several years received the instruction and assistance of Judge Trowbridge, called by Chancellor Kent "the oracle of the common law in New England." In the library of this jurist, one of the best in America, he laid the foundation of a vast accumulation of legal learning; and the manuscript briefs on questions incidentally occurring to him, which he there prepared, were frequently employed by him with advantage during his subsequent career at the bar and on the bench. Establishing himself in Newburyport, he entered upon a lucrative practice, which gradually embraced all the New England states. At the same time he took a considerable interest in the politics of the day, his opinions being of that conservative stamp which subsequently characterized the federal party. In 1778 he formed one of the so called "Essex junto," a body of citizens of Essex county who opposed the adoption of the state constitution recently framed by the Massachusetts legislature; and a pamphlet, familiarly know as "The Essex Result," stating the principal objections to the proposed constitution and approved and adopted by the "junto," was probably wholly prepared by him. It was widely circulated throughout the state, and had an important influence in causing the rejection of the constitution. In 1779 he was a delegate to the convention which framed the state constitution finally adopted. As a member of the convention which assembled in Boston in Jan. 1788, to ratify the federal constitution, he took an active and influential part in favor of that instrument, and was the author

of the "Proposition," offered by John Hancock and subsequently adopted, ratifying the constitution and recommending certain amendments, known in the histories of the times as the "conciliatory resolutions." He occasionally served in the legislature after this, but took no prominent part in public affairs, although to the close of his life he remained a consistent federalist. In 1800 he removed to Boston; and upon the retirement of Chief Justice Dana in 1806, he was appointed to succeed him upon the bench of the supreme judicial court, which position he held at the time of his death. As a lawyer and as a judge he was greatly respected. In the former capacity Justice Story declared that he "had no equal," and was 66 a head and shoulders taller than any other man in the whole state;" and his judicial opinions were so highly esteemed that a collection of them was published in New York under the title of "Commentaries on the Law of the United States, by Theophilus Parsons, late Chief Justice of Massachusetts." His decisions threw much light upon the laws of pleading, marine insurance, and real property, and he rendered a substantial service to the community by discountenancing delays and expediting the trial of causes. Apart from his professional duties, he was distinguished as a classical scholar, and as a mathematician of considerable ability; and in private life he was esteemed for many amiable qualities. An elaborate memoir of him has been published by his son, Theophilus Parsons (12mo., Boston, 1859). THEOPHILUS, an American author and jurist, son of the preceding, born in Boston, Mass., May 17, 1797. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1815, studied law with Judge William Prescott, and after a brief visit to Europe entered upon the practice of his profession, first in Taunton, and afterward in Boston. For several years after his admission to the bar he was a constant contributor to the "North American Review," and wrote occasionally for Mr. Walsh's "American Review" in Philadelphia. He was also for some time connected with the "Free Press" and "New England Galaxy" newspapers, and founded and edited the "United States Literary Gazette." He was an early convert to the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church, and has written much in exposition and defence of them in its periodical publications. Two volumes of "Essays" have appeared from his pen, and other smaller works, written for the same objects. In 1847 he was appointed Dane professor of law in the Harvard law school, and has since resided at Cambridge, in the discharge of the duties of his professorship, occupying his leisure in the preparation of legal treatises. He has published the "Law of Contracts" (2 vols., 1853); "Elements of Mercantile Law" (1856); an elementary work called "Laws of Business for Business Men" (1857); and an elaborate and comprehensive treatise on maritime law, including the law of shipping, the law of marine

insurance, and the law and practice of admiralty (2 vols., 1859).

PARSONS, THOMAS WILLIAM, an American poet, born in Boston, Aug. 18, 1819. He was educated in the Latin school of Boston, and in 1836-7 visited Italy, where he imbibed a fondness for Italian literature, one of the earliest fruits of which was a translation of the first 10 cantos of the Inferno of Dante, published in Boston in 1848. In the interval he adopted the profession of a dentist, which he has since practised, although devoting his leisure to literary avocations. In 1854 appeared a volume of poems from him, containing "Ghetto di Roma" and other pictures of life in Italy, which he revisited in 1847, and also many pieces suggested by American subjects. He has completed his translation of the Inferno, but it has not yet been published.

PARTHENOGENESIS (Gr. napeevos, virgin, and yeveσis, birth), a name given to the phenomenon in the organic world, believed by many to occur, though still questioned by others, of a production of successive generations of procreating individuals, originating from a single fertilized ovum, but without any renewal, through such series, of fertilization. Ordinarily careful observations seem, at first, to result in the rule that, certainly in the animal realm, and probably in the vegetable, offspring can only arise by means of a union of sexual elements, though this union may be either obvious or concealed. Yet there were those among the earlier writers who held to be possible what they called a lucina sine concu bitu. M. Bonnet, about the middle of the 18th century, first gave a scientific standing to this opinion, by discovering that the aphis (plant louse) may produce a numerous offspring, and these be followed by several generations, without the intervention in any known or conceivable way of the masculine fertilizing principle. M. de Quatrefages proposed to name this result agamogenesis, or production without union. The name at the head of this article was applied to certain cases of this kind by Professor Owen. Of Siebold's work on this subject a translation appeared in London in 1857. Strictly, the name parthenogenesis is hardly appropriate, since either the producers in these cases are not perfect ordinary females, or the production is not that of perfect ordinary offspring; or both these circumstances may be true. Siebold investigated this uni-sexual, or at least unusual generation, in certain sac-bearing lepidoptera, in the silkworm moth, and in the honey bee. In the first, females only result; in the second, both sexes. Along with Dzierzon, he obtained in relation to the honey bee the most complete set of observations. The queen bee, impregnated once for all for her 5 or 6 years of life, deposits thereafter, at proper periods, the germs of successive swarms or colonies; and the microscope reveals the fact that the eggs destined to become workers (imperfect females) and queens (perfect females)

PARTHENOGENESIS

are fertilized, as ordinarily, by contact or penetration of spermatozoids, while those to become drones (males) undergo no such influence; so that the production of these last is agamogenetic. In further proof, if the queen have her wings crippled from the first, so that she takes no flight, she produces only males, thus ruining the hive; and a like result may follow the pinching or freezing of one side of her body, and also, because the spermatozoids have become exhausted, in her old age. So, rarely, the workers may without fertilization produce eggs, but those of males only. But any of these males, though all directly agamic or fatherless, can become efficient in a return to the ordinary or bi-sexual mode of reproduction.-Bonnet's experiments with the aphis yield, as intimated above, more curious results. He carefully isolated a newly hatched aphis by conveying it upon a twig beneath a glass shade dipping into water. Of fourscore offspring produced alive by this insect, one was isolated in like manner, and with similar result; and this was repeated as long as the observations continued, or for 9 successive broods. As the young aphides are ready for propagation in about 2 weeks, it follows that in the course of a summer a single parent may have a progeny of millions, and all without renewed intervention of the male element. Kyber found that when warmth and food were abundantly supplied, this agamic production would go on for 2 or 3 years; but these broods, winged or wingless, consist almost wholly of imperfect females, seldom any males. The true females, always wingless, produce only after sexual union, and then eggs, not living offspring. And ordinarily, as the cold of autumn increases and the supply of food fails, the agamic young give place to true males and females; the latter laying eggs which, the next spring, hatch out again viviparous or imperfect females. Thus there is a cycle of changes; a large but varying number of links of non-paternal, being interposed between any two of paternal generation. The imperfect females have, in place of ovaries, certain tubular organs, the germs lying in which develop into living insects. Thus the case is only apparently, not really, anomalous; the real individual of the aphides is the perfect male or female only, and union of these must occur for the perpetuation of the race; but under favoring conditions, by a sort of exuberance of vital activity, an intercurrent production by germination or budding sets in, terminating finally in a return to the normal individual. According to this view, the drone bees are another instance of production by budding; and still others are said to be found in the daphnia (water fleas), and in some species of butterfly.-Among examples believed to be found in the vegetable world, the most marked is that of the cœlebogyne ilicifolia (literally, "holly-leaved spinster"), sent from Moreton Bay, Australia, to the royal gardens at Kew. This tree is diœcious, and the single specimen found

PARTHIA

is pistillate; yet in its new locality it has flowered and borne fruit regularly; and though it is claimed that, with perhaps a single exception, no pollen has been found in or upon any of its flowers, yet the seed seems to be perfected, and the numerous plants already obtained from it do not appear to be hybrid. Braun found in one instance a pollen grain and tube on the stigma of the cælebogyne; and he considers the seed of the plant perfect, while Klotzsch finds in it no embryo, but only a bud. It is doubtful whether any of the young plants of this species have as yet matured seed which could be again tested; and possibly the question of agamic production in plants must still be regarded as open. Regel found that after strongly cutting-in female plants of spinacia and mercurialis, male flowers were constantly developed, but which, without great care, would have been unnoticed; and reviewing these and other supposed cases, he concludes that "parthenogenesis certainly does not occur in plants with evident sexual organs." But Prof. Asa Gray, in apparent consistency with all the known facts, infers that parthenogenesis does occur in plants, and therefore probably not in 2 or 3 special cases nor in dioecious plants only; and that "sexual fecundation may be strictly necessary to the perpetuation of the species, without being strictly indispensable for every generation." ("American Journal of Science and Arts," 2d series, vol. xvii. p. 440.)

PARTHENON. See ATHENS, vol. ii. p. 291. PARTHIA, in ancient geography, a district of western Asia, the boundaries of which varied at different times. Originally it was a small and mountainous country S. E. of the Caspian sea, and bounded by Persis, Susiana, Hyrcania, Aria, Carmania, and Media, and therefore including nearly all of the modern Kohistan, the northern portion of Khorassan, and part of the Great Salt desert. It was divided into the districts of Camisene, Parthyene, Choarene, Apavarctene, and Tabiene, of which the two last were in the southern part. There were no cities of great importance. The largest was Hecatompolis, which during the reign of the Arsacida was the residence of the royal family. The chief mountains were the Labus or Labutas, probably part of the range now called the Elboorz mountains; the Parachoathras, now called Elwend; and the Masdoranus. The rivers were few in number, and scarcely more than mountain streams, almost dry during the hot season, but violent floods when the snow melted.-The Parthians, according to their own tradition, were of Scythian descent, their name signifying in that language "banished” or “exiles." This was the opinion of the ancients, although many modern writers suppose they were directly connected with the Iranian tribes. In their treatment of their princes and nobles they carried the usual obsequiousness of the oriental forms to excess. They were under the government of a double council, made up of the Magians and the nobles

or relations of the king. In war they fought on horseback, the principal weapon being the bow; and the peculiar manner in which they fought, discharging their arrows while retreating, was often referred to by the Roman poets. Polygamy was very common. The Parthians early became subject to the Persians. In the division of the empire by Darius Hystaspis into 20 satrapies, they, along with the Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians, formed the 16th. They constituted a part of the army of Xerxes in the expedition against Greece, and served under the last Darius. Parthia and Hyrcania formed under Alexander one satrapy; and after the death of that conqueror, the inhabitants of the former country joined the cause of Eumenes. Afterward they were governed successively by Antigonus and the Seleucidæ until 250 B. C., when under the leadership of Arsaces they became independent. The new kingdom constantly grew in power, gradually encroaching on the Bactrian possessions on the east, and on those of the Seleucida on the west, until the Parthian empire extended from the Euphrates to the Indus, and from the Oxus to the Persian gulf. The conquests of the Romans in Asia finally, about 50 B. C., brought that military nation in conflict with the Parthians. In 53 Crassus invaded their territory during the reign of Orodes, but was completely defeated, he himself being slain and his army cut to pieces. Elated by their victory, the next year they invaded Syria, but were driven back by Cassius, the proconsul of the province. Siding with Pompey in the civil war, and subsequently with Brutus and Cassius, they were defeated by Ventidius, the lieutenant of Antony, in 39, and by the same general again in 38, on the anniversary of the day of the defeat of Crassus, Pacorus, the son of Orodes, being slain in the battle. The war was continued after Phraates IV. ascended the throne, Antony marching into Media in 36, but being forced to depart after suffering severe loss. A treaty was made between the reigning monarch and Augustus, the former being threatened at the same time by the Romans and the disaffection of a large number of his own subjects. In this treaty Phraates restored to Rome the standards which had been taken on the defeat of Crassus. After the death of this monarch, Parthia became for many years the scene of civil wars between various pretenders to the throne. There were frequent conflicts with the Romans, especially in regard to the kingdom of Armenia, and during the reign of Trajan that emperor marched into Asia, and made Armenia and Mesopotamia Roman provinces. This territory was restored by his successor, but war again broke out during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Aurelius Verus; and the conquests made by Cassius, the general of the latter, which were continued by Septimius Severus and Caracalla, effectually weakened the strength of the Parthian empire. At length, seeing the prostrated

condition of the kingdom, Artaxerxes, representing himself as belonging to the ancient dynasty of the Persians, induced that people to throw off the yoke. Artabanus IV., the last emperor of the Arsacidæ, was defeated and slain in A. D. 226, and the new Persian empire, under the rule of the dynasty of the Sassanidæ, took the place of the Parthian.

PARTICIPLE (Lat. participium, a partaking), a part of speech which partakes of the properties of both an adjective and a verb, and may be considered as an adjective with the idea of time added or as a verb without the idea of affirmation. In English there are two participles, the present and the past. The former ends in ing, but originally in and, which termination is seen in the participles of the cognate languages, as ant in Sanscrit, ont in Greek (as in the genitive Boudev-ovτ-os), ant and ent in Latin (as in am-ant-is and reg-ent-is), and end in German. The past participle is formed usually by adding en or ed or d to the root of the verb; but the final d in some cases becomes t. In the power and expressiveness gained by the use of the participles, the modern languages are inferior to the ancient.

PARTITION, in law, the severance of common or undivided interests. It is particularly applied to interests in realty. At common law lands held by two or more persons were held by them either in joint tenancy, in common, or in coparcenery. The first two of these estates were created by the act of the parties. The last was created by operation of the law, when in casting a descent it devolved a single estate upon two or more heirs; as, for example, when an estate in fee of one who left no male succession passed to his daughters or other female representatives. These persons were called coparceners. Theirs was the only joint estate of which the common law would compel a dissolution at the request of a single party. Joint tenants and tenants in common became so, said the law, by their own mutual agreement and act, and the tenancy could be justly severed only by their mutual consent. But coparceners are rendered so by operation of law, and lest any one of them be prejudiced by the perverseness of his fellows, the law will lend its aid, if he ask it, and help him, by partition, to the enjoyment of his separate interest. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and of William IV. special statutes extended this common law benefit, which hitherto coparceners alone had enjoyed, to joint tenants and tenants in common; so that partition then became incident to all estates held in common.-In the United States the technical joint tenancy is quite abolished; joint ownerships being, if not under express statutes, yet in effect, only tenancies in common. So also the technical distinctions between estates in common and in coparcenery have lost nearly all their force. Much therefore of "the cunning learning of partition," as it exists in the English law, is inapplicable here, Yet as among us real property generally passes,