AND GENERAL HORTICULTURE. 



41 



BAL 



Ballo'ta. Fetid Horehound. From hallo, to 

 reject ; in allusion to its offensive odor. Nat. 

 Ord. LabiatcB. 



A small genus of mere weeds, occasionally 

 met with in the Eastern States, having found 

 their way from Europe, where they are 

 natives. 



Ball Thistle. Another name for Globe Thistle. 



Balm. Meli%"a officinnlis. A perennial herb 

 often used in the manufacture of a drink for 

 sick persons, and sometimes employed for 

 culinary purposes. 



Bee. Monarda didyma. 



Field. Calaminlha nepeta. 



Indian. Trillium pendulum. 



Of Gilead. CedronelUi triphylln. 



Of Gilead Tree. Balsa modevdron Gileadense, 

 and Populus bahamifcra var. candicans. 



Of Heaven. Oreodaphne CaUfornica. 



Baltnony. One of the popular names of Chelone 

 glabra. 



Balsam. Ladies' Slipper. Impatiens Balsamina. 

 A well-known, tender annual, a native of 

 India. It is one of the showiest and most 

 popular of summer flowers, blooming as it 

 does till the advent of frost. Numerous hand- 

 some varieties are grown, the prevailing colors 

 of which are red and white, the former extend- 

 ing to every shade of purple, crimson, scarlet, 

 rose, lilac, and carnation or flesii-color; but 

 some of the most superb sorts are elegantly 

 spotted with white. The spotted varieties 

 form a class by themselves, and are justly 

 regarded as among the most brilliant orna- 

 ments of the garden ; there are the crimson, 

 scarlet, rose, purple, and violet-sjjotted. 

 Another class is striped, after the manner of 

 Carnations, with purple, crimson, rose, scarlet 

 on pure white grounds, some with one color, 

 others with two or more colors, and some are 

 curiously mottled and striped. The most 

 improved varieties are very double, and styled 

 Camellia-flowered by the French. Some of 

 the flowers are almost as perfect and as double 

 as those of the Camellia, and nearly as regular 

 in shape. The Germans call them Rose- 

 flowered, as many of them approach the per- 

 fection of that flower in shape and fullness. 

 There is a class of Dwarf Balsams that do not 

 grow over a foot high, but very full and bushy 

 in habit. They do not pi-oduce flowers so 

 double as the Camellia or Rose-flowered 

 varieties, but are desirable for the garden. 

 They should not be planted with the tall 

 varieties, which attain the height of two or 

 three feet, when properly cultivated. The 

 only way to propagate the Balsam is from 

 seeds, which do not always produce kinds 

 exactly the same as the parent, but approach 

 very near, when great care has been taken to 

 keep the dilTerent varieties by themselves, as 

 is now practic6d by those who make a busi- 

 ness of raising the seed. Careful growers of 

 Balsams, who wish to raise prize flowers, never 

 use seed less than three years old; and they 

 are particular in saving it from the most 

 double and handsomest flowers, the best being 

 those which have their colors distinctly 

 marked, like a Carnation. Introduced from 

 the East Indies in 1596. 



Balsam. A name given to various gum-resinous 

 or oleo-resinous substances. Bayee Balsam, 

 a product of Balsamodendron pubescens. 



BAM 



Canadian Balsam, a product oi Abies halsamea. 

 Carpathian Balsam, a product of Pinus Cem- 

 bra. Copalm Balsam, a pi'oduct of Liquidam- 

 bar styraciflua. Hungarian Balsam, an oleo- 

 resinous product of Pinus Pumilio. Balsam of 

 Aeouchi, a product of Idea Aracouchini. 

 Balsam of Copaiva, an acrid pi'oduction of 

 various species of Copaifera. Balsam of 

 Maria, a product of Verticillaria acuminata. 

 Balsam of Peru, a product of Myrospermtim 

 Peruiferuni. Balsam of Quinquino, a product 

 of Myrospermum pubescenfi, sold as White 

 Balsam. Balsam of Tolu, a product of 

 Myrospermum toluiferum. Balsam of Umiri, 

 a product of Humirium, floribundum. Tain- 

 acoari Balsam, a product of a Brazilian species 

 of Caraipa. White Balsam, the same as the 

 Balsam of Quinquino above. 



Balsam Apple and Balsam Pear. See 

 Momordica. 



Balsam Fir. See Abies. 



Balsami'neae. A tribe of plants belonging to 

 the order Geraniacem, siepals and petals all 

 colored, consisting of six segments one of 

 them ending below in a conical spur. The 

 best known genus is Impatiens. 



Balsa'mita. A genus of Composite, of but little 

 interest, only that it contains the well known 

 Costmary, or Alecost, B. vulgaris, a native 

 of Italy ; although common in every village 

 garden in Britain and on the continent it is 

 almost entirely discarded for culinary pur- 

 poses, and even in France it is only used 

 occasionally to mix in salads. This plant is 

 the Pyrethrum tanacetum of Linnajus. 



Balsa'mode'ndron. From balsamon, an old 

 Greek name for balm or balsam, ajid dendron, 

 a tree. Nat. Ord. Burseraceoe. 



A genus of balsam-bearing trees with small 

 green, often uni-sexual flowers. B. myrrha is 

 supposed to yield some of the gum resin 

 known as myrrh, others produce Balm of 

 Gilead, or Balm of Mecca; a gum resin 

 obtained by incision into the bark, and con- 

 sidered by the ancients as a panacea for 

 almost all the ills that flesh is heir to. 



Balsam Tree. A common name for Balsam^ 

 odendron, and Clusia. 

 Canada. Abies balsamea and Pinus Fra^eri, 

 Copalm. Liquidambar Styracijlua. 

 Florida. Amyris Floridana. 

 Hungarian. Pinus Pumilio. 

 Jamaica. Clvsia jlava. 



Balsam Weed. A popular name for GnaphaU 

 ium polycephahim, a native plant used in the 

 manufacture of paper. 



Bamboo. Australian. Poa ramigera. 

 Blow-pipe. Arundinaria Schomburgkii. 

 Common. Bambw^a arundinacea. 

 Fortune's. Bambusa Fortunei. 

 Metake. Bambusa Japonica. 

 Sacred. Nandina domestica. 



Bambu'sa. Bamboo Cane. From bambu, its 

 Indian name. Nat. Ord. Graminaceoe. 



A genus of gigantic reeds, common through- 

 out Southern China and Japan. B. arundi- 

 nacea is the species of greatest importance. 

 When growing it has the appearance of an 

 immense sheaf of wheat standing on end. It 

 grows in large tufts or clumps, some of them 

 upwards of sixty feet in height, and the 

 quantity of canes which they yield is simply 



