453 



BETULA. 



BIGNONIA. 



454 



with resinous warts ; leaves triangular, taper-pointed, doubly-toothed, 

 on long weak stalks. This species is more an object of ornament than 

 of utility. It rarely grows more than 20 or 25 feet high, except in 

 very rich soils, when it is said to become somewhat taller. It is a 

 native of the northern parts of North America, from the lower parts 

 of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to Canada. Michaux 

 says that its bark cannot, be divided into thin plates like that of the 

 Paper-Birch or common European species. It is very like the Euro- 

 pean B. pendula, from which the characters we have assigned it are 

 sufficient to distinguish it. 



B. nigra (B. rubra, Michaux; B. lanulosa, A. Mich.), the Red Birch. 

 Branches covered closely with a short thick down, which they do not 

 lose till the second year ; leaves angularly rhomboidal, very deeply 

 doubly serrated, acute, with the axils and veins of the underside of 

 the leaf downy ; stipules narrow-ovate, membranous, smooth, soon 

 dropping off. A native of the borders of rivers, where it grows 

 associated with planes, maples, and willows, in the southern provinces 

 of the United States, delighting as much in heat, according to Michaux, 

 as many other species do in cold, and therefore the best adapted for 

 planting in the southern parts of Europe. It is a handsome species, 

 growing as much as 70 feet high, and from 2 to 3 feet thick, and is 

 remarkable for its bark not being white and shining, but brown, dotted 

 with white, and slightly wrinkled. The limbs of the tree are large, 

 and the branches terminate in long flexible pendulous twigs. Cask 

 hoops are manufactured from its shoots when about an inch in 

 diameter; and all the brooms used in the streets of Philadelphia, 

 which are far better than those of Europe, are prepared from its tough 

 and elastic twigs. In this country it is generally called B. anyalata. 



B. ejccelaa (B. lutea, Mich.), the Yellow Birch. Catkins erect, short, 

 thick, nearly sessile ; branches exceedingly downy when young ; leaves 

 rhomboidal, acute without any tapering, finely and regularly serrated, 

 or nearly entire : on very downy stalks ; stipules large and membra- 

 nous. Found chiefly in the coldest parts of North America along with 

 the Paper Birch ; south of the Hudson River it becomes rare. Michaux 

 states that it is principally in good alluvial soil that it thrives, in 

 company with black and hemlock spruces and ashes ; its greatest 

 height is from 60 to 70 feet, with a diameter of something more than 

 2 feet. It is said to be a handsome tree, with a straight trunk, often 

 clear of branches as far as 30 or 40 feet from the ground. It is 

 remarkable for the bright golden yellow of its bark, which shines as 

 if it had been varnished. It ia most like B. nigra, from which its 

 thicker and more hairy catkins and simply serrated leaves distinguish 

 it, independently of other characters. 



B. papyracea, the Paper or Canoe-Birch. Catkins thick, pendulous, 

 on long stalks ; branches generally more or less dowiiy when young, 

 sometimes hairy ; leaves ovate, occasionally heart-shaped, regularly or 

 irregularly serrated, smooth or downy. This, the most valuable of all 

 the species of Birch, is a native of North America, where it grows in 

 great quantities, not extending beyond 73 to the north nor 48 to the 

 south, according to Michaux. The slopes of hills and valleys, where 

 the soil is of good quality, are said to be its favourite stations : in such 

 places it often acquires the height of 70 feet. 



Its wood is sometimes used in North America for cabinet makers' 

 work ; but it is not of much value for exposure to the weather, as it 

 soon decays if subjected alternately to damp and dryness. Its bark is 

 the part which is the most esteemed ; this part is said to be so 

 durable that old fallen trees are stated to be frequently found with 

 their form so well preserved that one would think them perfectly 

 Hound, but upon examining them it is found that the whole of the 

 wood is rotted away, and nothing is left but the sound and solid case 

 of bark. This part is used for a number of useful purposes ; log- 

 houses are sometimes thatched with it ; little boxes, cases, Ac., and 

 even hats are manufactured from it ; but its great value is for making 

 canoes. For the purpose of obtaining pieces sufficiently large for 

 such a purpose, we are informed by Michaux that the largest and 

 smoothest-barked trees are selected. In the spring two circular 

 incisions at the distance of several feet are made, and a longitudinal 

 incision on each side ; then by introducing a wedge of wood between the 

 trunk and bark, the latter is easily detached. With threads prepared 

 from the fibrous roots iif the White Spruce-Fir (^4 biti alba), the pieces 

 of bark are sown together, over a light frame-work of wood, and the 

 seams are caulked with the rein of the Balm of Qilead Fir. Canoes 

 of this sort are so light as to lie easily transported on the shoulders of 

 men. It is said that one capable of carrying four persons and their 

 baggage only weighs from 40 to 60 pounds. 



B. lenta (B. carjiinifijia, A. Mich.), the Soft, Black, or Cherry-Birch. 

 Catkins short, erect ; branches quite smooth ; leaves thin, cordate, 

 oblong, tapering to a point, simply or doubly serrated, downy when 

 young, smooth afterwards; stipules very large and membranous. 

 None of the American birches produce timber so valuable as this ; 

 whence one of its American names is Mountain Mahogany. Its wood 

 is hard, close-grained, and of a reddish brown ; it is imported into 

 this country in considerable quantity, under the name of American 

 birch, for forming the slides of dining-tables, and for similar purposes. 

 It is abundant in the midland states, as in New York, New Jersey, 

 and Pennsylvania, but more to the south it only appears on the 

 summits of the Alleghanies. Deep rich soil is what it prefers ; and 

 when it attain* its greatest dimensions, which are as much as 70 feet 



of height, and 3 feet of diameter, it is a handsome tree, budding 

 remarkably early in the spring, when its leaves are covered with a 

 short thick coat of down ; this disappears later in the season, and 

 leaves them of a bright and lively green. It grows with unusual 

 rapidity. It is rarely seen in this country, although it is perhaps one 

 of the best suited to our climate. The thinness of its leaves, 

 combined with their oblong figure, distinguishes this from all the 

 other species. 



BETULA'CE^E, Birckicorta, the Birch Tribe, a natural order of 

 Apetalous Dicotyledonous plants. It was formerly comprehended, 

 along with other groups, in what were called A mentacevp, because it 

 bears its flowers in amenta, or catkins ; but it is distinguished from all 

 those which agree with it in this particular, by its flat, one-seeded, 

 two-celled, membranous fruit, and pendulous ovules. All the species 

 are either trees or shrubs, with the fertile flowers in one catkin and 

 the barren in another, and they have in general the main lateral 

 veins of their leaves running straight from the midrib to the margin, 

 without curving inwards. They are found in the colder parts of the 

 world, or in mountainous regions in hot countries. The only genera 

 belonging to this order are Alitui and Betula. [ALNUS; BETULA.] 

 Lindley places the order between Myricaceft and Altinyiacece. 



BEUDANTITE, a black mineral, with a resinous lustre and rhom- 

 bohedral crystals. It contains oxides of lead and iron. It is found 

 at Horhausen on the Rhine. 



BEWICK'S SWAN, the Cyynua Bewickii. [SWANS.] 



BI APHO'LIUS (Leach), a genus of Bivalve Shells, indistinctly known, 

 and which Rang considers to be identical with the genus Uiatdla of 

 Daudin. [PYLOBIDIANS.] 



BIB, a Fish. [MORRHUA.] 



BI'DENS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Compo- 

 titce, the suborder Corymbifera, tribe Senecionidece, subtribe Helian- 

 tkea, division Bidentidea;. It has monogamous discoidal heads, 

 sometimes radiant ; the florets of the ray neuter ligulate, of the disk, 

 hermaphrodite, tubular; the receptacle flat; the involucre of two 

 rows, the outer row spreading ; the branches of the style surmounted 

 by short cones ; the fruit compressed, angular, rough at the edges, 

 the angles terminating in 2-5 stiff retrorsely hispid bristles. The 

 genus has been named Bidena from the two bristles which most fre- 

 quently surmount the teeth. A great number of species belonging to 

 this genus have been described, but they are generally inconspicuous 

 weeds. They have been found in Europe and North and South 

 America. Two are natives of Great Britain in marshy and watery 

 places, B, bipartita and B. cernua. The latter is the Cereopsia Bidens 

 of Linnaeus. (Babington, Manual ; Lindley, Natural System.) 



BIGBONE LICK, a place in Kentucky (United States), where great 

 numbers of fossil mammalia occur in a dark-coloured marshy soil, 

 covered by gravel and resting on blue clay. The bones of Elephas 

 primigeniut and Mastodon maximus are very numerous. With them 

 lie bones of Magalonyx Jeferaonii, Boa bombifrona, Boa PoUoaii, and 

 Cerviu Amcricanut. (Rogers, On American Geoloyy ; British Ataociation 

 Reporlifor 1834.) 



BIGENERI'NA, D'Orbigny's name for a genus of Foraminifera, 

 which he originally described as minute Cephalopoda. There are two 

 subgenera ; the first consisting of the Biyenerirue properly so called, 

 with a central opening, and the other of the Gemmvlime (D'Orbigny) 

 with a marginal opening. 



BIGNO'NIA, a genus of plants named by Tournefort after the Abbe" 

 Bignon, librarian to Louis XIV. It forms the type of the monopetalous 

 order of Exogens, Bignoniacecc. It has a campanulate 5-toothed rarely 

 entire calyx ; the corolla with a short tube, a campanulate throat, 

 and a 5-lobed bilabiate limb ; the stamens four, didynamous, with the 

 rudiments of a fifth ; lobes of the anther divaricate ; stigma bilamel- 

 lated ; capsule siliqui-formed, 2-celled, with the dissepiment parallel 

 with the valves ; the seeds in two rows, imbricate, transverse, with 

 membranous wings. Nearly 100 species of this genus of elegant plants 

 have been described. They are usually climbing shrubs furnished 

 with tendrils, having opposite, single, conjugate, ternate, pinnate, or 

 digitate leaves. The flowers are mostly in terminal or axillary pani- 

 cles. The corollas are trumpet-shaped, and are coloured variously, 

 white, yellow, orange, purple, violet, or rose. 



All the species of this genus are splendid plants while in blossom, 

 and deserve a place in every collection. Most of them are climbers, 

 and adapted for training up rafters and pillars, but they only grow 

 freely in stoves. A mixture of loam and peat is best adapted for their 

 growth, and cuttings will strike readily under a hand-glass in heat, 

 either in mould or sand. The species known by the name of this 

 genus which is most abundant in our gardens is the Biynonia radicana. 

 This and some other species of Biynonia are now referred to the 

 genera Sjtathodea [SPATHODEA] and Tecoma [TECOMA]. It is one of 

 the few species capable of living in the open air against a wall in this 

 country. 



B. aquinoxialu has square glabrous branches, glabrous conjugate 

 leaves, oblong lanceolate leaflets, simple axillary tendrils, 2-flowered 

 peduncles, terminal ones racemose, follicles linear. It is a native of 

 Guyana. It is applied by the negroes to swellings of the feet, with 

 which they are troubled. 



B. Imcoxylon is a tree, and has quinate leaves ; ovate-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, glabrous leaflets ; terminal, solitary, or twin flowers. This 



