Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/463

P A Y P E A 441 and 38 Viet. c. 48. Payment of wages in public-houses (except in the case of domestic servants) is illegal hy the combined effect of 35 and 36 Viet. cc. 76 and 77, and 46 and 47 Viet. c. 31. Tender. This is payment duly proffered to a creditor, but ren dered abortive by the act of the creditor. In order that a tender may be good in law it must as a rule be made under circumstances which would make it a good payment if accepted. The money tendered must be a legal tender, unless the creditor waive his right to a legal tender, as where he objects to the amount and not the mode of tender. Bank of England notes are legal tender for any sum above 5, except by the bank itself, 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 98, s. 6. Gold is legal tender to any amount, silver up to 40s., bronze up to Is., 33 and 34 Viet. c. 10. By 29 and 30 Viet. c. 65 the .gold coinage of colonial mints may be made legal tender by pro clamation. Under the powers of this Act the gold coinage of the Sydney mint has been declared to be legal tender. The effect of tender is not to discharge the debt, but to enable the debtor, when sued for the debt, to pay the money into court and to get judg ment for the costs of his defence. Scotland. The law of Scotland as to payment agrees in most points with that of England. Where a debt is constituted by writ payment cannot be proved by witnesses ; where it is not consti tuted by writ, payment to the amount of 100 Scots may be proved by witnesses ; beyond that amount it can only be proved by writ or oath of party. The term tender seems to be strictly applied only to a judicial offer of a sum for damages and expenses made by the defender during litigation, not to an offer made by the debtor before litigation. Bank of England notes are not a legal tender in Scot land, 8 and 9 Viet. c. 38, s. 15, or in Ireland, 8 and 9 Viet. c. 37, s. 6. United States. In the United States the law as a rule does not materially differ from English law. In some States, however, money may be recovered, even when it has been paid under a mis take of law. The question of legal tender has been an important one. In 1862 Congress passed an Act making treasury notes legal tender. After much litigation, the Supreme Court of the United States finally decided in 1870 in favour of the constitutionality of this Act, both as to contracts made before and after it was passed (see 1 Kent s Comm., p. 252). These notes are legal tender for all purposes except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. All gold coins, silver dollars, and silver coins below the value of a dollar coined before 1854 are legal tender to any amount. Silver coins below the value of a dollar of 1854 and subsequent years are legal tender for sums not exceeding five dollars. Silver three-cent pieces of the dates 1851 to 1853 are legal tender for sums not exceed ing thirty cents, those of subsequent years for sums not exceeding five dollars. Cents and foreign coins are not legal tender. Postage currency is not legal tender for private debts (Bouvier s Law Diet., "Legal Tender"). It falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of Congress to declare paper or copper money a legal tender. By the constitution of the United States, " no State . . . shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts " (art. i. s. 10). PAYSANDU, formerly SAN BENITO, a port and depart mental town of Uruguay, is situated on the left bank of the river Uruguay in 32 20 S. lat. and 58 1 W. long., 270 miles by river from Montevideo, and 120 miles by road from Durazno, the present terminus of the railway. The long streets run east and west at right angles to the river, and the slope of the ground makes drainage easy. Paysandu has been a great battle-ground : in 1846, for instance, it was held by Oribe and bombarded by Rivera, and in 1865 it was captured by the Brazilians after a twenty-eight days siege. But the name is best known in Europe for the ox tongues, &c., preserved in its extensive saladeros. In 1868 the population was about 9000, and it has since consider ably increased. Taking Paysandu to mean Father Sandu or Alexander, the inhabitants call themselves Sanduseros. PAYTA, or PAITA, a town of Peru, in the province of Piura, with only 2390 inhabitants in 1876, but of im portance as the northmost harbour of the Peruvian coast, the port of the city of Piura (San Miguel de), with which it is connected by rail, a regular calling-place for steamers, and a great rendezvous for whaling vessels. It consists of a single narrow street of reed and wattle houses, but there are a good harbour and an iron custom-house. The great drawback of the place used to be want of water, previous to the construction by the Government of an aqueduct from the Chira river. Straw hats, cattle, hides, and cotton are exported. Formerly a rich and nourishing place, Payta has never recovered from the effects of Lord Anson s attack in 1741, when only two of its churches were spared. There is a. raised beach at Payta 300 feet high ; the slate and sandstone are covered by conglomerate sand and a gypsum formation containing shells of living species. PAZ DE AYACUCHO, LA. See LA PAZ. PEA (Pisum), a genus of Leguminosse, consisting of herbs with compound pinnate leaves ending in tendrils, by means of which the weak stems are enabled to support themselves, and with large leafy stipules at the base. The flowers are typically "papilionaceous," with a "standard" or large petal above, two side petals or wings, and two front petals below forming the keel. The stamens are ten, nine united, the tenth usually free or only slightly joined to the others. The ovary is prolonged into a long, thick, bent style, compressed from side to side at the tip and fringed with hairs. The fruit is a characteristic " legume " or pod, bursting when ripe into two valves, which bear the large globular seeds (peas) on their edges. These seeds are on short stalks, the upper extremity of which is dilated into a shallow cup or aril ; the two cotyledons are thick and fleshy, with a radicle bent along their edges on one side. The genus is exceedingly close to Lathyrus, being only distinguished technically by the style, which in the latter genus is compressed from above downwards and not thick. It is not surprising, therefore, that under the general name "pea" species both of Pisum and of Lathyrus are included. The common field or grey pea with compressed mottled seeds and two to four leaflets is Pisum arvense, which is cultivated in all temperate parts of the globe, but which, according to the Italian botanists, is truly a native of central and southern Italy. The garden pea, P. sativum, is more tender than the preceding, and its origin is not known. It has not been found in a wild state anywhere, and it is considered that it may be a form of P. arvense, having, however, from four to six leaflets to each leaf and globular seeds of uniform colour. P. sativum was known to Theophrastus ; and De Candolle points out that the word " pison " or its equivalent occurs in the Albanian tongue as well as in Latin, whence he concludes that the pea was known to the Aryans, and was perhaps brought by them into Greece and Italy. Peas have been found in the Swiss lake-dwell ings of the bronze period. The garden peas differ considerably in size, shape of pod, degree of productiveness, form and colour of seed, &c. The sugar peas are those in which the inner lining of the pod is very thin instead of being somewhat horny, so that the whole pod can be eaten. Unlike most papilionaceous plants, pea- flowers are perfectly fertile without the aid of insects, and thus do not intercross so freely as most similar plants do. On the other hand, a case is known wherein the pollen from a purple-podded pea applied to the stigma of one of the green-podded sugar peas produced a purple pod, showing that not only the ovule but even the ovary was affected by the cross. The numerous varieties of peas in cultivation have been obtained l>y cross-fertilization, but chiefly by selection. Peas constitute a highly nutritious article of diet from the large quantity of nitrogenous materials they contain in addition to starchy and saccharine matters. The Sivcct Pea, cultivated for the beauty and fragrance of its flowers, is not a true Pisum, but a species of Lathyrus (L. odoratus), a native of southern Europe. The Chick Pea (Cicer arictinum), not cultivated in England, is still farther removed from the true peas. The Everlasting Pea of gardens is a species of Lathyrus, with very deep fleshy roots, bold foliage, and beautiful but scentless flowers. L. latifolius, a British wild plant, is the source of most of the garden varieties. PEABODY, a town of the United States, in Essex county, Massachusetts, 5 miles north-west of Salem. In corporated as South Danvers in 1855, it adopted its pre sent name in 1868 in honour of the philanthropist George Peabody, who was born in the township, and in 1852 erected there the Peabody Institute, which now contains various memorials of its founder, the portrait of herself presented by Queen Victoria, the Congress medal, &c. Peabody contains a large number of leather and morocco factories, and several glue-works, print-works, &c. Its inhabitants numbered 7343 in 1870 and 9028 in 1880. XVIII. 56