Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/205

PEANUT OIL 163 FEABL America, Africa, India, the Malayan Archipelago, and China. The plant af- fects a light sandy soil, and is very prolific. The pods when ripe are dug «p and dried. When roasted they are sweet and palatable. Vast quantities are used in confectionery and the manu- facture of peanut butter. The nuts yield an excellent substitute for olive oil. Be- fore the World War the world pro- duction of peanuts was over 600,000,000 pounds, of which the United States con- Iributed 5 per cent. PEANUT OIL. Arachis Oil. A pale yellow oil with the characteristic odor and flavor of peanuts. Specific gravity 0.919. Soluble in all common oil sol- vents. Obtained by pressing peanuts, either with or without the application of heat. Pressing usually takes place in three stages, first in the cold, when the choicest oil is obtained, then at a tem- perature of about 30° C, when a lower grade oil is produced, and finally, at a temperature of 65° C, the product being a dark colored oil used in soap manu- facture. The better grades of oil are deodorized by treatment with live steam, and bleached with fuller's earth or car- bon. Refined peanut oil is largely used as a salad oil and for culinary pur- poses. PEAR, the Pyrus communis. It is a shrub or small tree, 20 to 40 feet high, with the branches more or less spinescent and pendulous, the flowers in corymbose cymes, and the fruit pyriform, one or two inches long, becoming larger and sweeter in cultivation. Many hundred cultivated varieties exist. The wood of the pear is almost as hard as box, and is sometimes used as a substitute for it by wood en- gravers. PEARCE, WILLIAM, an American Methodist Episcopal bishop; born at Hayle, Cornwall, England, in 1862. He came to the United States in 1884 and was ordained minister of the Free Methodist Church in 1888, afterward serving in several pastorates in Califor- nia, Oregon, and New York. He was ap- pointed bishop of the Free Methodist Church in 1908. He was a delegate to the World's Missionary Convention in 1910. PEA RIDGE, a post village in Benton CO., Ark.; about 8 miles E. of Bentonville. Here, on March 6, 7, and 8, 1862, oc- curred one of the most desperate battles of the Civil War. Gen. Samuel R. Cur- tis, in command of about 11,000 Union troops, with 49 pieces of artillery, was attacked by a superior force of Con- federates (said to number PO.OOO) under Gen. Earl Van Dorn, and a series of obstinate and sanguinary conflicts en- sued; which, lasting through three days, finally ended with the withdrawal of Van Dorn. The total Union loss was 1,351; that of the Confederates, though never officially reported, is supfiosed to have been more severe. PEARL, a peculiar product of cer- tain marine and freshwater mollusks or shellfish. Most of the molluscous ani- mals which are aquatic and reside in shells are provided with a fluid secretion with which they line their shells, and give to the otherwise harsh granular material of the shell a smooth surface, which prevents any unpleasant friction. The material in its hardened condition is called nacre by zoologists, and by dealers mother-of-pearl. Detached and gener- ally spherical or rounded portions of the nacre are often found on opening the shells, due to the intrusion of a grain of sand or other substance, which, by irri- tating the tender body of the animal, obliges it in self-defense to cover the cause of offense which it has no power to remove; and as the secretion goes on regularly to supply the growth and wear of the shell the included body constantly gets its share, and thereby continues to increase in size till it becomes a pearl. The true pearl of price is only found in the pearl oyster. The most famous pearls are those from the East ; the coast of Ceylon or Taprobane, as it was called by the Greeks. They are, however, ob- tained now of nearly the same quality in Panama in South America, St. Marga- rita in the West Indies, the Coromandel coast, the shores of the Sooloo Islands, the Bahrien Islands, and the islands of Karak and Corgo in the Persian Gulf. The pearls of the Bahrien fishery are said to be even finer than those of Cey- lon. The single pearl which Cleopatra is said to have dissolved and swallowed was valued at $400,000, and one of the same value was cut into two pieces for ear- rings for the statue of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome. False pearls are manufactured extensively. The finest and costliest imitations could only be distinguished from the real by an expert. Roman pearls differ from other artificial pearls by having the coating of pearly matter on the outside, to which it is attached by an adhesive substance. The art of making these was derived from the Chinese. The Chinese have long been in the habit of introducing grains of sand and little knots of wire into the shell of the pearl oyster, in order that the animal.