417 



BEROK. 



The summer haunt* of the Bernicle reach high into northern lati- 

 tudes, loelan.l. Si.it/l-rgen, Greenland. Lapland, the north of Kusxia 

 and of A*ia, Mid HndMO'l lUy, are recorded at its breeding places. 

 Sir John Richardson note* it as accidental on the Saskatchewan 

 (53 54' N. lat) as a passenger in spring and autumn, and gives the 

 southern states of the North American I'ninn a* its winter quartern. 

 It visit* liritiin in the nuttinin, appearing in great numbers on the 

 north-western coasts, and in the north of Ireland. ( in t hi- eastern and 

 southern shores of Britain it ia comparatively rare, and the Brcnt- 

 Gooee occupies its place. 



The weight of a Bcrnicle is about fire pounds, the length rather more 

 than two feet, and the breadth about four and a half with tin- wings 

 spread. The bill, about an iiu-li and a half long, ia black, with a 

 reddish streak on each side, and between it and the eyes is a small 

 black streak. Irides brown ; head (to the crown), cheeks, and throat 

 white ; the rest of tin- hi-.nl. neck, and shoulders black. Upper part 

 of the plumage marbled with blue, gray, black, and white ; belly and 

 tail coverts white ; tail black ; flanks ashy gray ; legs and feet du-ky. 



The eye-streak ia much broader in the young of the year than in 

 the adult ; the under parts are not of so pure a white, and the upper 

 plumage ia darker. 



The flesh ia excellent 



BE'ROE, a genus of marine animals established by Miiller, 

 liclonging to the Cilioyrailt Acakpha. Some of the species, as 

 the common B. Pileat,nre now referred to (>//;"*. The sjiecies, 

 which are gelatinous, transparent, and either oval or globular, float in 

 the ocean, where they are widely diffused. Lamarck says that they 

 are very phosphoric, and that they shine at night liki- lamps suspended 

 in the sea, their brilliancy becoming vivid in proportion to the rapidity 

 of their motions. Their breathing is carried on by means of cilia, 

 which extend longitudinally and at equal distances along the surface 

 from tin- mouth to the inferior opening. Fabricius observed minute 

 crustaceans in the digestive organs, and that when one of tin -< 

 animals waa broken to pieces those pieces still continued to live and 

 swim about by the action of the cilia, which was still continued. The 

 Beroes have a rotatory motion, and Bosc observed that they also had 

 another, produced by an alternate contraction and dilatation. 



Messrs. Audouin and Milne Edwards have given a description of 

 the organisation of the globular Beroe (Beroe Piieiu, Lain. ; J'leuro- 

 krackia of Fleming ; I'utharit of Pe"ron and of De Blainville}, and Dr. 

 Grant, in the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society,' has given an 

 account of its structure. Cuvier mentions it as being common in the 

 nur th where il is said to be one of the aliments of the whale 

 (JMirna'i and in the channel on the French coast. It in found very 

 commonly on the British coasts. Dr. Grant found it in the harbour 

 of Sheerness, in which latter locality he saya "the boatmen, who 

 seemed to be familiar with it under the name of the spawn of the tea- 

 egg (cAintu), which it somewhat resembles in its globular and ribbed 

 form, assured me that often in hot and calm weather the water 

 swarms with the little medusa: in such numbers as to cover the sur- 

 face in all this part of the {estuary of the Thames. The mii 



regular oval form, with its longest diameter from the mouth to the 

 anus, about nix lines, and its breadth about four lines. The : 

 texture of the body is quite transparent and colourless." [Ac.u.Krii.K.J 



I'.K.Ho'SfS, a genus of Coleopterous Insects belonging to the family 

 //!i<lri,),hilida (Leach). These beetles inhabit ponds, in which they 

 may often be seen swimming in an inverted position. They most 

 probably feed upon vegetable substances. The common colouring of 

 the s]>ecies is duxky yellow varied with markings of a black or dark 

 metallic bronze hue; their form is nearly oval, and the principal 

 generic characters are, eyes prominent, eh pen.- entire, antenniu nine- (.') 

 jointed, thorax narrower than the elytra. 



1U.UKY, in Botany, a term confined to such soft and succulent 

 fruits a* have their seeds lying loosely among pulp. The imowbarry, 

 the currant, and the gnijto arc therefore genuine berries ; but plums, 

 roe-heps, haws, ftc., in which the seeds do not lie among the pulp, 

 are excluded from the definition, although they are all comprehended 

 under the s mie name in common language, | Km 



HKKTHKU.A, a genus established by De Blainville for n Marine 

 Mollu.k, found though rarely on the British coast*. It. is the ]'li,-- 

 branchiu plumulii of Montague, and is thus drtinedl>y lie I'.lainville : 

 Body oval, sufficiently protuberant <A..,,,V) altove, and recurved l.elow, 

 when in a state of repose, so as completely to hide the head and the 



V.KRY1.. i:- 



culifonii occipital auricules are cleft and striated within at their 

 termination, mid approach each other very nearly at their bane, which 

 is thinned out as it were. The eyes are sessile, placed u|mn the 

 posterior root of the tentacula. There H but one pevtinifonn brancliia, 

 which is lateral, attached ouU-riorly, and in great measure free 

 behind. The organs of generation terminate in >mo large tubercle, 

 situated before the root of the brain -hia ; the shell is interu:il, very 

 . and oval, with a summit hardly to IK- distinguished. Forbes 

 and Hanley, in the ' History of British Mollusea,' place it in the 

 family Pleurobranchidte of the to, Although seldom taken 



it appears to have a wide range. It has been found at Kxmouth, 

 Guernsey, Salcombe Bay, Milton! Haven, Isle of Man, Sound of Skye, 

 Scarborough, coast of Northumberland, and Malbay on the west 

 coast of Ireland. 



BERTH IK.U1TK. [ASTMONT.] 



BERTHOLLE'TIA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Lecythidacea, and named after ISerthollet the celebrated chemist. 

 The only species ia a tree of large dimensions, and forms vast forests 

 on the bonks of the Oronoco. Its stem averages 100 feel in height 

 and two feet in diameter, not branching till near the top, whence its 

 boughs hang down in a graceful manner. Its leaves are undivided, 

 arranged alternately upon the branches, about two feet long and five or 

 six inches wide, ofabrilliontgreen. Its flowers are yellowish white, with 

 a calyx having a deciduous bonier <li\ ided into two pieces, a corolla of 

 6 unequal petals joined together at the base, and a very great unmlxr 

 of white stamens joined into a thick fleshy ring. The fruit is figured 

 and described by Huinboldt as a spherical case as big as a man's head, 

 with four cells, in each of which are six or eight nuts ; it* shell i rugged 

 and furrowed, and covered with a rind of a green colour. The nuU 

 are irregularly triangular bodies, having a hard shell, which is very 

 much wrinkled, and which is fixed to a central placenta bv their 1 .w, r 

 end; their seed, as is well known, is a firm oily almond of a pun- 

 white colour. They are sold in the shops of London under the name 

 of Brazil Nuta. 



" The Portuguese of Para," says Humboldt, "have for a long time, 

 driven a great trade with the iiutH of this tree, which the natives call 

 luvia and the Spaniards Aliin-ndron; they send cargoes to French 

 Guyana, whence they are shipped for England and Lisbon. The 

 kernels yield a large quantity of oil well suited for lam|." The same 

 traveller describes himself and his companion Ilonpland as having 

 found these nuts a great luxury when they were following the course 



of the Oronoco. For three n ths they had lived upon bad 



late, rice boiled in water, alnays without butter, and generally without 

 salt, when they met with a store of Bertholletia nuts. It was in the 

 course of June, and the Indians hail just gathered in their harvest of 

 them. The kernels were found delicious when fresh, but unfortunately 

 they are apt to become rancid on account of the great quantity of oil 

 which they contain. 



fnrta i. 

 a, tide tltw ; I, view of bsck, to how Interim', ulicll. 



foot, which last is large and oval, but miic-h lens than the mantle. 

 There is a kind of veil at the anterior Itord.-r of the head, prolonged 

 on each side into a sort of appendage cleft laterally. The two tenta- 



Kniit and Scriln of I'r 1'itillrlin rrcrha. 



Ill-'.l; VI.. I mini nd, among the varieties of which arc found two of 



tli. t I., .uitiful and eo.-tly ijcm-'with which we arc acquainted, 



namely, the Emtnilil and the .</'. 



They belong to the rhoiuliohe.lr.il syt'-m of crystallisation, usually 

 occurring in regular hexagonal prism- w I. riou.-h modified, 



sometimes by the trum -atioii ( th. 



times by the simple truncation of the terminal eik-e.- ; l.ut the prism 

 is sometimes terminated in a much more complicated manner, of 

 which a remarkable instance has pre-.-nt.-d it -elf in a ery.-tal in the 

 possession of Professor Naumann .who has observed in 



them the faces of no less th foinn of the rnombonednl 



system. Its general aspect is always that of a hexagonal prism, and 



