563 



BOLTONITE. 



BOMBUS. 



654 



roughish ; body sub-reniform, the orifices being somewhat prominent ; 

 peduncle terminal ; envelope sub-pellucid, whitish ; mantle or tunic 

 very thin, provided with transverse circular narrow muscles, which 

 cut each other very obliquely ; tentacula about ten or twelve in 

 number, very unequal, clavate, with the clava plumiform, or beau- 

 tifully divided into a number of 

 regular lacinke ; branchial pouch 

 marked with about fifteen or six- 

 teen large folds, and having the 

 net-work simple and regular ; 

 dorsal sulcus having the two 

 lateral filaments winged and the 

 intermediate simple ; oesophagus 

 descending vertically to the lower 

 end of the body, as suspended, 

 and there meeting an ascending 

 ovoidal stomach without any ap- 

 parent internal folioli ; intestine 

 with an oblong, longitudinal, 

 open loop, which is prolonged to 

 the pedicle ; rectum narrow, sub- 

 conical, and ascending nearly 

 parallel to the oesophagus, only 

 higher ; anus having a scolloped 

 margin; livercoating the stomach 

 behind the right ovary, and run- 

 ning from the lower end of the 

 body, as suspended, about half 

 way up ; it is divided into several 

 granulated globes, some of which 

 are separated from the others, 



Boltmia renij'm mis, from a preserved 



specimen. 



f, pedicle ; C, branchial orifice of enve- 

 lope ; A, anal orifice of envelope. 



particularly towards the pharynx; 

 ovaries two, elongate, lobate, situ- 

 ated on each side of the body, 

 ami directed towards the anal orifice ; right ovary straight, claviform, 

 lying close within the loop of the intestine ; left ovary larger and less 

 lobate, but undulated and extending downwards behind the branchial 

 vein. 



M'Leay gives the northern seas of America as the locality of the 

 animal. Captain J. C. Ross says that a single specimen was dredged 

 up from a depth of seventy fathoms near Elizabeth Harbour. He 

 observes that he can add nothing to M'Leay's admirable description 

 except that the colour of the body is a very light brown ; that of the 

 pedicle darker. 



The sphere wherein this Ascidian moves must necessarily be very 

 contracted. Anchored by its pedicle, the length of its moorings fixes 

 the limit of its motions, which are most probably confined to the 

 oscillations arising from the agitation of the waves. Both the body 

 and pedicle, as M'Leay observes, are scabrose, or covered with a rough 

 surface, which is formed by exceedingly short coarse hairs. The 

 original colour he could not ascertain ; but in spirits it was cinereous, 

 or dirty white, which, he adds, may possibly be the true colour of the 

 animal, as it is not unfrequently that of the other Ascididie. M'Leay's 

 specimen was brought home from Winter Island by W. N. Griffiths, 

 Esq., while under the command of Captain (now Sir Edward) Parry. I 



BOLTONITE, a native anhydrous Silicate of Magnesia. It occurs 

 massive with a granular structure, or in yellowish or bluish-gray 

 grains. The cleavage is in one direction ; the lustre vitreous ; trans- 

 parent to translucent. It is found disseminated through limestone hi 

 the United States of America, at Bolton, Roxborough, and Nittleton, 

 Massachusetts ; and Ridgefield and Reading, Connecticut. 



in >MBA'CE.E, a group of plants considered by some a distinct 

 natural order, by others as a mere section of Stercuiiacete. They are 

 usually large trees, with broad deep-green leaves, and flowers of con- 

 siderable size. Technically they differ from Malracece in having two 

 cells to their anthers which are often doubled down upon themselves, 

 in their calyx opening in an irregular rather than a valvate manner, 

 and in their stamens being usually collected into five parcels. Their 

 anthers are often described as having only one cell ; but this is an 

 inaccurate mode of speaking of them, inasmuch as they are formed 

 upon the common two celled type, and merely have the cells united at 

 the point of the connective. 



This group contains some of the most majestic and beautiful trees 

 that are known, but nothing of much medical or economical import- 

 ance is furnished by them. Their wood is light and spongy ; the 

 long cottony substance found within their fruit, and which has gained 

 for some of them the name of Cotton-Trees, is too short in the staple 

 to be manufactured into linen ; and the slightly acid or mucilaginous 

 qualities that occur hi the group are altogether inferior to those of 

 many Malvaceae. The Baobab Tree is one of them. [ADANSOSIA.] 

 It is remarkable for the excessive thickness of its trunk as compared 

 with its height, and this is a character of common occurrence. Seve- 

 ral American species spread enormously near the ground, forming 

 huge buttresses with the angles of their trunks. This is especially 

 the case with the genus Eriodendron, which is moreover often defended 

 by very large conical prickles, which do not fall off till they are exfo- 

 liated by the gradual distension of the trunk. Among these plants is 

 a singular instance of a flower resembling the paw of some animal. 



[CHEiROSTEMOif.] No bombaceous plants are found far beyond the 

 tropics. 



BOMBAX (from j3<(,uj8i>{), a genus of plants, the type of the natural 

 order Bombacca. It has a naked, campanulate, unequally 2-5-lobed 

 or truncately 5-toothed calyx ; five petals joined together, and some- 

 what connected at the base with the column of the stamens ; nume- 

 rous stamens, monadelphous at the base, but free at the apex ; the 

 anthers inserted at the middle, kidney-shaped or oblong, opening 

 above by a transverse chink ; the capsules large, 5-celled, 5-valved, 

 woody ; cells many-seeded ; albuminous seeds surrounded by silky 

 cotton. The species of this genus are large trees with a soft spongy 

 wood, which is frequently used for making canoes. They are natives 

 of South America and the East Indies. 



B. Ceiba, Common Silk-Cotton Tree, has a prickly trunk, palmate 

 leaves with five leaflets, turbinate fruit concave at the apex. This 

 plant is a very large tree, and is a native of the West Indies and South 

 America. Some of the older travellers gave extravagant accounts of 

 its height; it is however frequently seen reaching above 100 feet. 

 The down, which is contained in the seed-vessel, is very soft, but is 

 too short to be used in the manufacture of cloth. It is made into 

 hats and bonnets, and used for stuffing chairs and pillows by the poor 

 people in the districts in which it grows. It is not made into beds, as 

 it is reputed unwholesome to lie upon. The trunks of the largest are 

 made into canoes, and some of these will carry from fifteen to twenty 

 hogsheads of sugar. Columbus in his first voyage to America speaks 

 of having seen a canoe made of this tree in Cuba, which contained 150 

 men. When the stem decays it becomes the prey of the larva of the 

 Macaca Beetle, which when gutted and fried is esteemed as a great 

 delicacy in the districts where it occurs. 



B. pubeicem has an unarmed trunk, the lower leaves quinate, the 

 upper ones teruate ; the leaflets obovate, elliptical, emarginate, coria- 

 ceous, smooth, or covered with black dots of stellate pili beneath ; 

 the pedicles inflated and hollow under the flower, and as well as the 

 calyxes covered with black dots of stellate tomeutum ; the petals 

 tomentose, three times longer than the calyx, with a smooth ovary. 

 This plant reaches from 20 to 30 feet in height. It is a native 

 of Brazil, in the province of Miuas Qraes, where the tree is called 

 Embirussu. The bark is very tough, and is used for making ropes. 

 The other species of Bombax, of which from fourteen to twenty have 

 been described, possess the same general qualities as the two species 

 described. The wool of the pods of the B. Malabaricum is used in 

 India to stuff pillows and beds. B. insiyne is a native of the Birmau 

 Empire, and is remarkable for its large red very showy flowers. All 

 the species grow best in a rich loamy soil. Cuttings not too ripe, 

 when taken off at a joint, will root freely in sand under a hand-glass in 

 a moist heat. The best mode of propagating them is from seeds 

 brought from the places of their natural growth. None of the species 

 seem to have flowered in stoves, but this arises probably from the 

 want of height. 



(Burnett, Outlines ; Loudon, Encyclopedia of Planti ; Q. Don, 

 Gardener's Dictionary.) 



BO'MBUS, the generic name of those Insects commonly called 

 Humble-Bees : this latter name was derived (Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence conjecture) from the German Hummer- or Hummel-Biene, a 

 name probably given to these insects from the humming sound which 

 they emit. The Bmnli belong to the order Hymenoptera and family 

 Apidce, and as regards the English species are by far the largest of 

 the tribe. They may be distinguished by the following characters : 

 Body thickly covered with hair ; head with a longitudinal groove and 

 an indentation extending across from the upper part of the eyes ; in 

 this indentation the three stemmata are placed, being arranged nearly 

 in a straight line ; and it is from the central stemmatum that the 

 longitudinal groove has its origin, whence it extends downwards; 

 antennae with twelve joints ; labruni with its surface uneven ; man- 

 dibles with several longitudinal grooves on the upper side ; posterior 

 tibia; compressed, smooth, margined with strong recurved hairs, and 

 armed with spines at the apex. 



The above are the peculiarities of the females. In the males the 

 antenna! are thirteen-jointed and considerably longer than those of 

 the other sex ; the hinder tibiae want the corbicula ; the mandibles 

 are bidentate at the apex and each furnished with a tuft of curved 

 hairs ; they differ likewise in possessing no sting and in the structure 

 of their claws, but these two last characters are common to the whole 

 tribe of Apidce. 



The neuter bees resemble the females in every respect excepting 

 size ; in this they are inferior to the males, which latter are rather 

 less than the females. 



Kirby, in his monograph on the bees of this country, enumerates 

 37 species as belonging to his section ' * * c. 2 : ' this section, 

 with the exception of a few species [PsYTHiBUs], now constitutes the 

 genus of which this article treats. 



The prevailing colours of the species are yellow, red, and black : 

 and as these colours are disposed with a certain degree of uniformity, 

 we have arranged the following, which form the principal part of the 

 British species, under three heads, namely, those which have the apex of 

 the body more or less red, those which have that part white, and 

 those in which the ground-colour of the body is yellow or buff : by 

 this arrangement much repetition in the descriptions is avoided. 



