BAMLITE. 



BANKSIA. 



382 



(Roxburgh, Flora Indica, vol. ii. ; Rumphius, Herbarium Amboi- 

 nense, vol. ir. ; Romer and Schultes, Systema, Vegetabilium, vol. vii.) 



BAMLITE, a mineral of a white or grayish-white colour. It is 

 columnar ; has a hardness=6 and \ ecific gravity=2'98. It occurs in 

 Is orwav, and consists of 



Silica 59-6 



Alumina 42'0 



Peroxide of Iron I'O 



BANCHUS, a genus of Insects belonging to the order Hymenoptera. 



BAND-FISH. [CEPOLA.] 



BANDICOOT (Perameles, Geoff. St. Hilaire), a genus of Marsupial 

 Mammals, which appears to occupy, in Australia, the situation which 

 the Shrews, Tenrecs, and other Inscctivora fill in the Old World. 



The species of Peramde called Bandicoots by the colonists (a name 

 which properly belongs to the Great Rat of India, Mu giyanteus, but 

 which, from a vague resemblance in size and appearance, the early 

 colonists of Sydney applied to the animals at present under con- 

 sideration), though they agree in the most prominent characters of 

 their dentition with some of the Marwpiata, and in the form of their 

 extremities and the number of their toes with others, yet differ 

 essentially from all in their habits and economy. [MARSUPIATA.] In 

 the number, form, and arrangement of their canine and molar teeth 

 they agree in all respects with the Opossums of America and the 

 Dasyures of Australia ; that is to say, that they have 2 canines and 

 14 molars in each jaw ; but they differ widely in the number of their 

 incisors, and in this respect offer a unique combination which is found 

 in no other known genus of mammals. Of the incisor teeth there are 

 10 in the upper jaw, and only 6 in the lower ; and the external on 

 each side, particularly in the upper jaw, is insulated, and stands apart 

 both from the canine and from the other incisors ; it is likewise much 

 larger than the intermediate incisors, and its form is that of an 

 ordinary canine tooth, of which indeed it appears to exercise all the 

 functions. 



The hind legs are considerably longer than the fore, and the number 

 and form of the toes are in all respects similar to those of the 

 kangaroos. It was this similarity that induced M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire 

 to suppose that the pace of the Bandicoots also resembled that of the 

 kangaroos. This, however, is far from being the case. The dispro- 

 portion between their anterior and posterior extremities is by no 

 means so great as to compel the Bandicoots to hop upon the hind legs 

 only, like the kangaroos, though it is certainly sufficiently so to 

 prevent them from walking like ordinary quadrupeds. Their actual 

 pace resembles that of the hare, and consists of a succession of leaps 

 from the hind to the fore feet, but it is not very rapid, nor can they 

 maintain it for any great length of time. On the fore feet there are 

 five toes, of which the three middle are long and stout, but the lateral 

 ones are so short that they do not touch the ground, and are conse- 

 quently useless in walking, though they may be of great service in 

 burrowing. The hind feet have but four toes each, and of these the 

 third is the largest of all, whilst the two internal are united under the 

 same skin, and appear externally like a single toe armed with two 

 claws. 



This is precisely the arrangement and form which we find in the 

 kangaroos ; but the feet of the Bandicoots differ, in being (provided 

 with broad powerful claws, which enable them to burrow with 

 astonishing facility, and to scratch up the ground in search of roots. 

 They likewise differ from the kangaroos in having a small fleshy 

 tubercle, in lieu of a thumb, upon the hind feet, and in having the 

 last or ungual phalange of all the toes divided in front by a small 

 incision, as in the pangolins and ant-eaters, a structure which gives a 

 much, firmer attachment to the claw, and vastly increases their power 

 of burrowing. In other respects the Bandicoots are chiefly 

 characterised by their long attenuated muzzles, short upright ears, 

 lengthened bodies, and moderate rat-like tails, which are not prehensile, 

 as is the case with many genera of this order, nor have these animals 

 the power of ascending trees. With regard to the period of gestation, 

 the number of young, and the mode of their introduction into the 

 abdominal pouch, it is only known that they resemble the other 

 marsupials in the premature production of their young, and in 

 nourishing them for some time afterwards in the abdominal pouch of 

 the mother, and that this pouch contains the mammary organs for 

 that purpose. 



Three or four of the species are well made out, but with regard to 

 the rest there is still some doubt. 



1. P. natuta (Geoff. St. Hilaire), the Long-Nosed Bandicoot, 

 measures about a foot and a half in length from the extremity of the 

 muzzle to the origin of the tail ; the head is 4 inches long, the tail 

 6 inches, the hind legs also 6 inches, and the fore legs only 3 inches. 

 The ears are erect, pointed, and covered with short hair ; the eyes are 

 particularly small ; the nose remarkably long, pointed, and naked at 

 the extremity ; and the tail attenuated, and, though better covered 

 with hair, bearing some resemblance to that of a large rat. This 

 organ is not used by the liandicoot to support the body in a sitting 

 posture, like that of the kangaroo, as has been imagined by M. Geoffroy 

 St. Hilaire, to whom we owe the first description of this species as 

 well as the establishment of the present genus ; neither are the pro- 

 gressive movements of these animals similar to those of the kangaroos, 

 an the nme eminent zoologist conceived, from the form and propor- 



tions of the extremities, that they might be. The pace of the 

 Bandicoot as already observed resembles that of our hares and 

 rabbits, which certainly approximates more nearly to the saltigrade 



Long-Xosed Bandicoot (P. nasuta). 



pace of the kangaroos, gerboas, and helamys, than any other kind 

 of locomotion with which we are acquainted. So far M. Geoffrey's 

 conjecture was well founded, and he has certainly good reason in his 

 observation that analogous structures rarely deceive us in reasoning 

 upon their functions. The external coat of the Long-Nosed Bandicoot 

 is composed of coarse bristly hair, in colour very nearly resembling 

 that of the common Rat (Mas decumanus), except that it is of a more 

 sandy shade on the upper parts of the body, and of a more clear 

 silvery white beneath ; under this long outer hair there is an interior 

 coat of soft ash-coloured wool or fur, which protects the animal from 

 the cold and variations of temperature, for it appears to be an inhabi- 

 tant of the mountainous parts of Australia, principally if not 

 exclusively. The tail is of a rather darker colour than the body, and 

 the whole animal, except in the great length and pointed form of the 

 nose, has much the appearance of an overgrown rat. The form and 

 characters of its teeth would lead us to suppose that it fed upon 

 insects and other similar animal substances. In the neighbourhood 

 of human habitations they frequently enter into the granaries, and 

 do as much mischief to the corn as the rats and mice of our own 

 country. 



2. P. oleiuln (Geoff.), the Blunt-Nosed Bandicoot, first described by 

 Dr. Shaw under the names of the Porcupine Opossum and Didelphys 

 obaula, is readily distinguished from the last species by the shortness 

 and bluntness of its snout, and by the broad round form of its ears. 

 The arrangement of the teeth also differs in some degree from that of 

 the Long-Nosed Bandicoot. The external incisors are more nearly 

 in contact with the canines and central incisors on each side of them ; 

 the molars immediately succeeding the canines, and answering to the 

 false molars of the carnivora, are contiguous to one another and of a 

 triangular form ; and the posterior molars are more flattened on the 

 crowns. This latter character would seem to intimate that the 

 present species was more purely herbivorous than the last, and future 

 observation may probably confirm this conjecture. The colour and 

 quality of the hair and fur are the same as in the Long-Nosed 

 Bandicoot. 



3. P. Gnnnii is a native of Van Diemen's Land, where it is very 

 generally diffused. It lives principally on bulbs, but also eats insects. 

 P. logoffs, of Reid, is of a gray colour, and as large as an opossum. 

 It has been described by Professor Owen under the generic name 

 Phalacomt/s. [MARSCPIATA.] 



BA'NKSIA, an Australian genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Proteacetf. It was named in compliment to Sir Joseph Banks. 

 It consists of bushes or less frequently of small trees, with their 

 branches growing in an umbellate manner. The leaves are hard and 

 dry, and in young plants always cut at the edges, but in old specimens 

 xmdivided. They have a dull green colour on their upper side, and 

 are usually white, or very pale green, on the lower. The flowers are 

 long, narrow, tubular, coloured calyxes, without corolla, and with 

 only four stamens lodged in their concave points. They are collected 

 into oblong heads, often consisting of 600 or more, closely arranged, 

 and do not fall off when the blooming is over, but wither, become 

 brown, and adhere to the axis of the head. Very few of them are 

 fertile ; the greater part are altogether abortive, and form a sort of 

 coarse fibrous covering to the singular 2-valved fruit, which is thick 

 and woody, contains two black-winged seeds, and when it sheds them 

 opens like an oyster, or any other bivalve shell. 



These plants are found in sandy forest-laud, or on rocks, over the 

 whole known continent of Australia, but chiefly beyond the tropic. 

 They are called by the colonists Honeysuckle Trees, and are considered 

 in New South Wales as evidence of bad land ; but in the Swan River 



