705 



BUZZAIID. 



BYSSOMA. 



706 



I'.avcs have been employed, medicinally, as a tonic, a substitute for 

 Peruvian bark. 



Buxm Balearica, the Majorca Box, is a handsomer plant than the 

 other, with broader leaves, and a more rapid growth ; but it ia much 

 more impatient of cold. Plants of it however live in the neighbour- 

 hood of London without protection. It is found wild in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lluch hi Majorca, on the hills, at the height of 1500 

 feet; and it also occurs abundantly on Mount Galatzo, where it is 

 mingled with the palmetto, but not in great masses. We find nothing 

 in books concerning the quality of ita wood ; but there is reason to 

 suppose that a part at least of the Spanish and Turkey box-wood is 

 furnished by this species. 



BUZZARD. [FALCONIM.] 



BYRRHUS, a genus of Coleopterous Insects, instituted by Linnama. 

 belonging to the family of Bijrrhid(e as defined by Leach. The 

 Beetles composing it are more or lesa globose, very convex, and 

 sericeous ; the club of their antennae ia 5-jointed, and is gradually 

 thickened to the extremity. The elytra cover the body, and the 

 animal can so contract its legs as to pack them in cavities adapted for 

 their reception on the under side of the body. Thia it doea when 

 alarmed, simulating death. The larva of the common species, the 

 Byrrhtu pilula, popularly known as the Pill-Beetle, is of an elongate 

 form, narrow, with a large head, the dorsal plate of the first segment 

 large, and the two terminal segments larger than the others. Seven 

 British species of Bijrrhui are enumerated by Mr. Stephens in his 

 ' Systematic Catalogue of British Insects." (Westwood, Introduction 

 to Entomoln;/!/. ) 



BYRSONIMA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 M'llliiykiaccte. The bark of the species i astringent, and is used 

 extensively for tanning in the Brazils. The wood of some of the 

 species, especially B. verbaacifolia, is of a bright red. The bark of 

 Ji. cratrifotia is used in fevers. B. crattifolia is one of the thousand 

 remedies for rattlesnake bites. It is called Chapera Manteca. The 

 Alcornoco Bark is the produce of B. laurifolia, B. rltopalafolia, and 

 B. coccolobcefolia. The acid and astringent berries of B. epicata are 

 said to be good in dysentery. (Lindley, Vegetable Kinijdum.) 



BYSSA'CEvE, a tribe of Cryptogamic Plants, raised by some 

 botanists to the importance of a distinct order, whilst others refer it 

 either to the Lichens or the Funyi, or distribute ita genera amongst 

 the various orders of Oryptogomfa, Fries places this group of plants 

 in the natural order of Lichens, with the following definition : 

 " Aerial, perennial, constantly growing, with a filamentous texture, 

 consisting of solid fibres (either few, or several glued together, with 

 a common bark), unchanged and permanent. Fructification homo- 

 geneous, growing externally and naked." Many of the species of 

 plants referred to this order are of a very doubtful nature, and 

 particular states of decaying vegetable and animal matter have 

 undoubtedly been described as plants, and placed amongst them. 

 These forms of matter, whatever they may be, are not less interesting 

 to the naturalist than if they came under his definition of a plant. 



The genus Rhiarmorptia [RHIZOMOBPHA] is referred by most 

 botanists to Byttaeert. Some authors have doubted their specific vege- 

 table character. The various forms are found on decaying wood, and 

 in mines, pits, and dark places. In the coal-mines of Dresden they 

 form objects of great interest on account of their phosphorescence. 

 Mr. Erdmann, quoted by Burnett in his ' Outlines of Botany,' gives 

 the following account of this phenomenon in one of the Dresden 

 mines : " I saw," he says, " the luminous plants here in wonderful 

 lieauty ; the impression produced by the spectacle I shall never forget. 

 It appeared, on descending into the mine, as if we were entering an 

 enchanted castle. The abundance of these plants was so great that 

 the roof and walls and the pillars were entirely covered with them, and 

 the beautiful light they cast around almost dazzled the eye. The 

 light they give out is like faint moonshine, so that two persons near 

 each other could readily distinguish their bodies. The lights appear 

 to be most considerable when the temperature of the mines is com- 

 paratively high." One of the species, Rhizomorpha cincluinarum, is 

 found on the cinchona barks of commerce, and is a sure indication of 

 their worthless state. Another species of Bijssacece, Jlimantia rim /.<,- 

 n I-HHI of Fee, is an evidence of the subputrescent state of the barks 

 on which it is found. Racodium is a genus referred by Fries to this 

 group of plants. The R. cellare is a common plant in wine-cellars, 

 where it forms a kind of tapestry on the walls and roofs, investing 

 the casks and bottles with a tunic resembling in colour and appear- 

 ance the skin of a mouse, ffi/pochnus is a genus found on the decaying 

 bark of trees. When found on barks used for medicinal purposes, 

 they should be rejected as unfit for use, as this plant indicates 

 incipient decay. 



The genera Monilia and Afperyillta are sometimes referred to 

 fli/ftnc'ii: Thi; species of these genera, with many others, form what 

 i- known by the name of Mould on various substances. [Moui.mNi;-s. ] 

 I'm ptnicillata is commonly found on plants in herbaria. The 

 various forms of Atperyittut are found on all kinds of decaying sub- 

 stances. A. glaitcus is the blue-mould which forms on cheese, lard, 

 bread, Ac. It gives a value to cheese, and its colour is often imitated 

 by fraudulent dealers by sticking brass pins into the cheese, the 

 verdigris formed from the pins giving it the colour of mould. 



Most of the species of the old genus BysfUi are distributed amongst 



SAT. HIST. DIV. vor,. i. 



other genera. B. lolithus, the Violet-Scented Byssus, is found of a 

 deep red colour on boarded buildings, old pales, and trunks of trees, 

 on rocks in mountainous countries, and on walls. It is now called 

 Lepraria lolithus. It is not less remarkable for its violet scent 

 than its red colour. [Snow, RED.] There is another plant, Chroo- 

 lepus lolithus, which was included under the Byssus lolithns of older 

 writers. Bysfus Cryptarum forms the genus Tophora of recent writers. 

 Several species of Tophora have been named. They do not however 

 produce spores, and by some they are supposed to arise from the 

 germination of the spores of ferns and mosses arrested in the rudi- 

 mental state. The Lepraria: are sometimes referred to Byssacece, but 

 they seem to be the commencing point of the organisation of true 

 Lichens. They have a thallus resembling a scurf which is formed of 

 sporules. They are very common on decaying timber of all kinds. 



The cells of the leaves of many plants during decay assume a 

 variety of forms which have been described aa cryptogamic plants, 

 under the genera P-hyllcrium, Erineum, Gruinaria, Taphria, &c. 

 [FuxGi.] Many of these so-called plants are meteoric productions. 

 " On one occasion they are said to have suddenly overrun all the leaves 

 of pines on the side next the wind in the neighbourhood of Dresden ; 

 on another, on the 29th of August, 1830, to have in an instant spread 

 over the sails and masts of a ship at Stockholm ; and Fries is disposed 

 to consider the cobweb-like matter that overruns the grass in the 

 mornings of spring and autumn of this nature, and not of animal 

 origin." (Lindley.) 



(Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom; Burnett, Outlines; Smith, Eii'/l "mh 

 Flora.) 



BYSSOARCA, a sub-genus of Mollusca, separated by Swainson 

 from the genus A rca of Linnams, and considered by the former as 

 the sedentary type of that genus. The following is the sub-generic 

 character given by Swainson in his second series of 'Zoological 

 Illustrations : ' Animal fixed by byssiform filaments to other bodies ; 

 shell transverse ; umbones remote ; valves gaping in the middle of 

 the ventral margin. 



" The annuals of these shells," says the author last quoted, " affix 

 themselves to other bodies by a particular muscle, which is protruded 

 through the gaping part of the valves ; they also adhere when young 

 by the byssiforui epidermis which covers the exterior." Mr. G. B. 

 Sowerby has described several new species collected by Mr. Cuming 

 on the western coast of South America and among the islands of the 

 South Pacific Ocean, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London "for 1853. Bystoarca has been found moored to stones 

 and shells at depths varying from the surface to 75 fathoms. 



Itt/tsoaj-ca Xtxe. 



1, Valves closed ; 2, valves closed, view of the hinge area ; 3, a single valve, 

 showing the hinge teeth and the interior of the valve ; a, urabones ; b, part of 

 the ventral margin whore the valves gape, to give room for the extrusion of the 

 tendinous foot. 



BYSSOMYA, a genus of Conchiferous Mollusks, separated by Cuvier 

 and placed by him under his Acephalous Testacea, between Pandora . 

 and Hiatella. De Blainville, who approves of Cuvier's separation, 

 observing that, though the shell differ* little from Saaicava, the animal 

 is very distinct, arranges it in his family of Pyloridea, between Saxi- 

 cara and Rliomboidei. 



Generic Character. Animal more or less elongated, subcylindrical, 

 elongated behind by a long tube, which is bifurcated at its extremity 

 only. A hole at the lower and anterior part of the mantle for the 

 passage of a small conical canaliculated foot, and of a byssus situated 

 at its posterior base. Two strong adductor muscles. 



Shell often irregular, covered with a strong epidermis, oblong, 



2 z 



