' 



BELLEI!<>nit>\. 



more or leu unequal-Aided, lui J have highly-developed membnuiotiii 

 stipule* at their Iwse. 



It is very difficult to say with what other natural order thU ban 

 moat affinity. By Link it has been stationed near UmbeUifenr, a most 

 unintelligible annotation. Jussieu, attracted by it* highly-developed 

 stipidos, and ap)>arently apetalona flowers, together with the acid 

 flavour which in 10 prevalent in the order, mupected its near alliance 

 with PulyyoMcctt ; while Lindley, with a greater degree of pro- 

 bability, now makes it constitute a member of the Ciicurbitul 

 alliance of hU Epigynous subclaM of Exogens with polypetalou 

 flowers. 



All the species of the genus, Begonia, of which the order principally 

 consists have irregular fleshy leaves, ofton richly coloured with 

 crimson, succulent stems, and neat-looking pink flowers growing in 

 few-flowered panicles. Most of the species at present described may 

 bu procured in a living state in the gardens of Europe. 



The roots of the various species of Brgunia ore astringent and 

 slightly bitter. B. Malalxtrica and II. tulxrum, with others, are used 

 as potherbs in the countries where they grow. Endlicher says that 

 some of the Mexican species are drastic purgatives. 



BKI.KMMTE'LLA. The group of Jielannitet which occurs in the 

 Chalk Formation, and which i marked on the anterior and ventral 

 fam by a long narrow fissure, is thus named geiierically by D'Orbiguy. 

 To this group belong B. mammal HI, B. yranulatta, B. mammillafiu, 

 Ac., in Europe, and /(. Americana* in the United States, if this last 

 be really distinct from II. mucrnmtin.i. 



BKLEMXITES (from the Creek piltpyor, ft dart or arrow), Pfcil- 

 stein and Donnerstein of the Germans, Pierre de Foudre of the French, 

 a genus of extinct Cejihalopodoiu Afollusca, whoso conical remaiiiH 

 were for a Ion; time utterly misunderstood. Before the geological 

 hi-i'.ry of this extinct marine animal was well made out, few natural 

 productions ministered more largely to the superstitious feelings of 

 man. The ancients, it was said, had a legend that they came from 

 the lynx, and called them Lapides Lyncis and Lyncuria. They were 

 also, from being found on Mount Ida, and from their supposed 

 resemblance to those organs, called Ida?i Dactyli, or Petrified Fingers. 

 This idea was too much in unison with the gloomy imagination of the 

 northern nations to be lost: we accordingly find the term Devil's 

 Fingers bestowed on them, and not uufrequently that of Spectre- 

 Candles. 



Afterwards came the age of Thunder-Stones and Picks, when 

 this fossil was alleged to be the produce of electricity, and was 

 called by the learned Lapis fulminant. They were alfo called 

 Arrow-Heads. 



Sulntequently, and at the period when organic remains were almost 

 universally regarded as liatu nature, formed by the plastic power of 

 the earth, the Belemnite was considered, even by those who hod 

 adopted more correct opinions upon the subject of many fossil shells, 

 to be strictly mineral, to be a stalactite or a crystal ; and by some 

 who found it in the sandy parts of Prussia, where amber also occurs, 

 it was supposed to be that substance petrified. 



At length it began to bo granted that the Belemnite was of organic 

 animal origin, and the conical cavity at it.i broader end caused it to 

 be looked upon as the tooth of some unknown creature ; while some 

 pronounced it to be a spine, like those of an Kehiniu, and others gave 

 way to various conjectures not worth recording. Then arrived the 

 dawn of Von Tressau, Klein, Breynius, Da Costa, Bntnder, and Plott, 

 who allowed the fossil to be of testaceous origin, but knew nothing 

 of iU relative position. At last, the increasing light of science placed 

 the Belemnite in a comparatively clear point 



A substance with which fable had been so busy was not likely to 

 have been overlooked in the old Materia Medica : we accordingly find 

 that it was administered in a powdered state as a remedy for the 

 night-mare, and for the stone. Dr. Woodward states, that in Glouces- 

 tershire the powder was blown into the eyes of horses affected with 

 watery humours ; and in Prussia it is said to have been used when 

 pulverised in drawing wounds. 



The true place of the Belemnite is among the Cephalopoda. Cuvier 

 and Lamarck had arrived at this ..in-ln-i-ni. and they also believed 

 that it was an internal shell. It forms the first genus of the first 

 family ) of Lamarck's first division of the Cephalopoda, 



namely, the 1'olythalnmous, or Many-Chambered, division. 



Miller, in a pnjM-r in the ' Transactions of the Geological Society,' 

 gives the following a* the generic character : 



" A cephalopodoiui (.') molluscous animal, provided with a fibrous 

 |>atbose conical shell, divided by transverse concave septa int 

 rate cells, or chamber! connected by a siphuncle ; and inserted into a 

 laminar, solid, fibrous, spathose, subconical or fusiform body extend- 

 ing beyond it, nnd forming a protecting guard or sheath." 



Since Miller's paper was written many important facto have been 

 added to our knowledge of the structure of Belemnites. 



In addition to the circumstances attending the discovery at Solon- 

 hofen of some traces of the general form of the animal, of which the 

 remains ordinarily found are a part, and of the ink-bag and horny 

 liuiiinin at Lyiue and Whit by, an almost complete restoration of the 

 Belemnite animal was made from specimens lajd n]>en in tin- rutting 

 of the Great Western Railway, near ('hip|-idiam in Wiltshire. The 

 Oxford Clay here excavated afforded to Mr. Pratt and the late Marquis 

 of Northampton admirable specimens of the phragmacoucs and 

 laminar plates, outlines of some of the soft parts of the body and 

 arms, and the form and arrangement of the hooked appendages of 

 the arms. Indeed one of Mr. Pratt's specimens reveals the place and 

 size of the eyes, the funnel or breathing-tube , the tendinous ]nrts of 

 the mantle, and the lateral fins, the ink -Madder, and ink-duet, c 'v,. n, 

 ' Hunterian Lectures,' 1843.) Professor Owen, to whom the finest 

 specimens of these discoveries were submitted, has found a strong 

 resemblance between the fossil animal and the group of recent 

 Svpioid Animals called Onychni< n>hi.i, on whose anus are not the usual 



I nit slender horny hooks. The arms, eight in number, 

 equal, slender, and furnished with hooks through all their length, 

 alternating in a double row. The fins appear round, anil a little 

 behind the middle of the body, ax in Sepiout; the caudal e\t 

 pointed, inclosing the fibrous guard, the anterior extremity of the 

 lamhiar plate, under which the ink-bag is placed, nearly transverse, 

 and not arched so as from analogy with the wpiosteum miglr 

 been expected. The Belvmnitio Animal a dibranchiate eight-armed 

 Cuttle must iu some instances, to judge from Bj of the 



fibrous conical extremity, have reached (arms included) four or more 

 feet in length, and its figure appears favourable for swift motion. In 

 the Lias deposits whole shoals of some of the species appear t 

 perished together, and there are found aljout the cones many 

 tions of the presence of animal substances. 



The geological distribution of the IVlcmnit.-s has been h 

 examined. In 1836 Professor Phillips presented to the British 

 Association at Dublin a full account of the structures an. 1 i 

 occurrence of the British species : assigning names and characters to 

 the principal groups which oceiir in the Cretaceous, Upper Oolitic, 

 Lower Oolitic, and Liassic Strata. M. d'Orbigny also published 

 results perfectly accordant, derived from a full investigation, especially 

 of the species occuring in France. It thus appears that in the lirst 

 place Belemnite* are confined as a group to the Mesozoie Strata ; that 

 many species allied to the II. comprtmi of Ylt/.. /;. 

 of De Blainville, and B. paxilluta of Schlottheitn, l>elong to the Lias ; 

 that othen allied to B. ellipticu* of Miller, Jl. v <tui of 



De Blainville, B. Aalenti* of Voltz, belong to the Lower ( lolite 

 that others allied to B. itilcatus of Miller, H. Allil-irfenti* of Schlott- 

 heim, abound in the period of the Oxford Clay ; while B. mcm 

 It. <i<ia<l,-tuii. ]!. J.ifteri, II. n'/tiiualui, and others now ranked an 

 Beli-mnilelln by D'Orbigny, characterise the Cretaceous Strata. The 

 investigations entered into on this subject are \.-t incompletely pub- 

 lished ; but the reader may refer with advantage to the Treatises of 

 De Blainville and Volt/., to Buckland's Bri-i i >'( (rbigny'g 



I'nlin,iiii,l,i<ji: I'l-iinraue, and to Owen's ///. /-m L<rtmt*. Figures 

 illustrating several points will be found in Mantell's Medal* of Creation, 

 vol. ii. 



BELL-FLOWER. [CAMPANULA; SPKCI I.AIIIA ; W.MII .I.MT.B..IA.| 



UKI.LADO'NNA, the Deadly Nightshade, a violently poisonous 

 wild plant,. [An; 



I'.KLLADO'NNA LILY (literally Fair /../// l.il;i\ a species of 

 Amaryllis, so called on account of its beauty and ilelii-ate blushing 

 flowers. It is found wild at the Cape of Good Hope, has become 



naturalised in the ditches of Madeira, and is not une MI..II in the 



gardens of England, where it lives for many years without shelter, if 

 planted on a sunny border well protected from wet in winter. Its 

 stems are about 18 inches high, of a rich purplish green, w ith I 

 violet bloom spread over them. The flowers grow in a clu.-ter at tin- 

 top of the stem, are of a funnel shape, with six divisions curving 

 backwards at the points, and not less than three inches long : their 

 colour is a rich but not deep rose, which varies in intensity in dim-rent 

 varieties. They appear in August and SeptemU-r, without their 

 leaves, and give an extremely rich and very exotic appearance to tin- 

 border* in which they appear. The bulbs may be procured in any 

 quantity from Madeira. 



BELLE DK NUIT, a name given by the French to various kinds 

 of Bind-Weeds. In tropical countries these plants occur in groat 

 abundance, expanding their largo fragrant and delicate flow- 

 white, or Mir-, or lilac, in such magnificence that they may well ! 

 called the 'glory of the night,' The species to which ti 

 more particularly applied is what botanists call /;/. 

 .. who-,- white (lowers have u dianu ; 



. and open at sunset in the woods of the K.i-t and West Indie-. 

 ng at daylight. 



BBLLE'ROPHON, a Fossil Shell, the animal of which is unknown. 

 Denys de Montfort established the genus, but he placed it among the 

 Polythalamous, or Chambered, Sin nee cut in half the very 



specimen which belonged to De Montfort. and thus proved that it 

 was unilocular, like Anjuniii'tn. It is rich i>: hi. 1, occur 



M-lu-ively in the Pal- i millions, a, the Silurian Strata, 



Devonian Rocks, and Mountain Limestone. U has been generally 



