php reserved characters...

hi... got a simple question... i have the following: <html> <body> <? $test = "<p"; echo $test; print $test; ?> </body> </html> it doesn't seem to print... which leads me to believe that "<" is a reserved char/word... i tried to do a "\<p" with no luck... any idea as to what's going on, and can someone point me to a list of the actual php reserved chars/words.... couldn't seem to track them down on the php site/google... thanks bruce