397 



BASSUS. 



BATATAS. 



308 



fruits, about as large as a pigeon's egg, usually containing two or three 

 roundish light-brown seeds. From these is produced a fat-like 

 substance, which is a kind of vegetable butter, concerning which we 

 find the following information in the * Asiatic Researches,' by Dr. 

 Roxburgh : " On opening the shell of the seed or nut, which is of a 

 fine chestnut colour, smooth and brittle, the kernel appears of the 

 si/e and shape of a blanched almond. The kernels are bruised on a 

 smooth stone, to the consistency of cream, or of a fine pulpy matter, 

 which is then put into a cloth bag, with a moderate weight laid on, 

 and left to stand till the oil or fat is expressed, which becomes 

 immediately of the consistency of hog's-lard, and is of a delicate 

 white colour. Its uses are in medicine, being highly esteemed in 

 rheumatism and contractions of the limbs. It is also much rained, 

 and used by natives of rank as an unction, for which purpose it is 

 generally mixed with an Mr (aromatic oil) of some kind. Except the 

 fruit, which is not much esteemed, no other part of the tree is used. 

 After the oil has been expressed, the dregs are employed by the poor 

 as food. This Phulwara Butter will keep many months in India 

 without acquiring any bad colour, taste, or smell, and might no doubt 

 be substituted advantageously for animal butter. The timber is of 

 no value, being nearly as light as that of the Semul, or Cotton-Tree 

 i /.'<,/,/'/.< /' j>''i]Ji > 



B. Irmyifolia, the Indian Oil-Tree, is a large tree, a good deal like the 

 last, but its leaves are narrower, and its dowers much more fleshy. 

 It is a native of the peninsula of India, and is found in plantations 

 along the southern coast of Coromandel, where it is called the Illupie- 

 Tree. Its fruit is yellowish, and yields by pressure a valuable oil, 

 which is used by the poorer natives of India for their lamps, for soap, and, 

 instead of better oil, for cookery. The flowers also ore roasted and eaten 

 by the Indian peasants, or bruised and boiled to a jelly, and made into 

 small balls, which are sold or exchanged for fish, rice, and various 

 sorts of small grain. The wood is as hard and durable as teak, BO that 

 this is one of the most generally useful trees found on the continent 

 of India. 



B. latifolia, the Mahwa, Madhaca, or Madhooka-Tree, has oblong 

 leaves, and a corolla with a very protuberant tube. It is a native of 

 the mountainous parts of the Circars and of Bengal, where it forms a 

 middling-sized tree. Its wood U hard and strong, and proper for the 

 naves of wheels ; its flowers are eaten raw by the natives and by 

 jackals, and they yield by distillation a strong intoxicating spirit. 

 From their seeds a considerable quantity of greenish-yellow oil is 

 obtained, which is found useful for the supply of lamps ; it is, 

 however, inferior to that of the last species. It is curious that this 

 oil stains linen or woollen cloth as animal oil does, while the fatty 

 substance of the B. butymcea possesses no such property, but when 

 rubbed on cloth leaves no trace behind. 



A fourth species has been named B. Purkii and is believed to be 

 tin- Shea-Tree, or African Butter-Plant, which is so very important an 

 article of African internal commerce ; and which it would apparently 

 be extremely desirable to introduce into the West Indies and Bengal, 

 as a new source of internal wealth. This is the plant which is 

 frucnieiitly .spoken of by Park in his ' Travels in Africa' : 



" The people were everywhere employed in collecting the fruit of 

 the shea-trees, from which they prepare a vegetable butter, mentioned 

 in the former part of this work. These trees grow in great abundance 

 all over this part of Bambarra. They are not planted by the natives, 

 but are found growing naturally in the woods ; and in clearing wood- 

 land for cultivation, every tree is cut down but the shea. The tree 

 itself very much resembles the American oak, and the fruit, from the 

 kernel of which, first dried in the sun, the butter is prepared by 

 boiling the kernel in water, has somewhat the appearance of a 

 Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped in a sweet pulp, under a thin 

 green rind ; and the butter produced from it, besides the advantage 

 of its keeping the whole year without salt, is whiter, firmer, and to 

 my palate of a richer flavour than the best butter I ever tasted made 

 of cow's milk. The growth and preparation of this commodity seem 

 to be amongst the first objects of African industry in this ami the 

 neighbouring states, and it constitutes a main article of their inland 



Duncan has also given an account of this tree, and expressed his 

 tion that it might become an important article of commerce 

 between Europe and Africa, as it is available for all the uses for which 

 the hard oils an; used in the arts and manufactures. 



liASSI'S, a genus of Insects, belonging to the order Ifymenoptera, 

 and the family Bracmidce. These are four-winged flies, with long and 

 narrow bodies. They frequent the flowers of umbelliferous plants. 



BAT. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



P.ATA'UA, D'Azara's name for the Bush-Shrikes, forming the 

 genus Thamiutphiliu of Vieillot. Mr. Swainson considers the typical 

 group to consist of the species with long tails ; and of this division, 

 TltiiMiinfJiilm rigortii (Such), Vanya ttriata (Quoy and Gaimard), 

 may be taken as an illustration. 



Dr. Such states this to be the largest species yet known, and gives 

 13 inches as the length of the body. The bill is black, and very much 

 compressed. In the male (which is the sex here figured) the back, 

 wings, and tail are black, broadly banded with fulvous, and the under 

 part of the body is a dirty whitish-brown. On the head is a rufous 

 crest which is blackish at the apex. In the female the bands are 



whitish and the crest blackish, and the under part of the body ash- 

 colour. 



Tlia:itnopliilits Viijni sii. 



Tkamnopliilut nariut, the Spotted Shrike of Latham, is an example 

 of the round and comparatively short-tailed division. 



Spotted Shrike (1'hamnojthilus n 



Leach thus describes it from a specimen in the British Museum t 

 " Black ; back and belly ash-coloured ; the former anteriorly spotted 

 with white ; quills of the wings externally, and the tips of those of 

 the tail, white ; under part of the body ash-colour, of which colour 

 the back partakes in a considerable degree." 



BATA'TAS, the Malayan name of a Convolvulaceous plant, the root 

 much eaten in the south of Europe before the cultivation of the 

 potato, which both became a substitute for it, and appropriated its 

 name. It has generally been considered a species of Convolvuliw ; 

 but Professor Choisy in his recent classification has erected it and a 

 few others into a peculiar genus, distinguished by having an ovary 

 with four cells, in each of which there is only one seed. 



The only species of any general interest is the Batatas eiltUis, the 

 Convolrulu* Batata of authors, the Sweet Potato. This plant, origi- 

 nally found wild in the Malayan archipelago, has been gradually dis- 

 persed over all the warmer parts of the world, where it is still an object 

 of culture for the sake of its roots, which, when roasted or boiled, are 

 mealy, sweet, and wholesome, but slightly laxative. It is a perennial 



