BEL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY 



B E R 



165 



Seeds: numerous, columnar-oblong, imbricate. ESSEN. CHAR. 

 Calix: seven-cleft. Petals: seven. Stamina: fourteen. Berry: 

 seven-celled, many-seeded. The species are, 



1. Bejaria ^Estuans. Leaves lanceolate; flowers in ra- 

 cemes. This is a shrub, twelve feet in height, with roundish 

 spreading branches ; corolla flesh-colour. Native of Mexico. 



2. Bejaria Resinosa. Leaves ovate ; flowers heaped ; co- 

 rolla purple, very resinous or viscid. Found in New Granada. 



Belladonna. See Amaryllis and Alropa. 

 Bell-flower. See Campanula and Canarina. 

 Bellis; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia 

 Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common hemis- 

 pheric, upright; leaflets ten to twenty, in a double row, 

 lanceolate, equal. Corolla: compound, radiate; corollules 

 hermaphrodite, tubular, numerous in the disk ; female ligu- 

 late, more in number than the leaves of the calix in the ray. 

 Proper of the hermaphrodite funnel-form, five-cleft; of the 

 female ligulate, lanceolate, scarcely three-toothed. Stamina: 

 of the hermaphrodite ; filamenta five, capillary, very short. 

 Antherze cylindric, tubular. Pistil : germen ovate ; of the her- 

 maphrodite, style simple; stigma emarginate : of the female, 

 style filiform ; stigmas two, patulous. Pericarp : none. Ca- 

 lix : unchanged. Seeds : solitary, obovate, compressed ; 

 down none. Receptacle : naked, conical. ESSEN. CHAR. 

 Calix : hemispheric, with equal scales. Seeds : ovate, with 



no down. Receptacle: naked, conical. The species are, 



1. Bellis Perennis ; Perennial or Common Daisy. Scape 

 naked. It is a native of most parts of Europe, in pastures, 

 flowers almost all the year, and shuts up very close every 

 night, and in wet weather. The taste of the leaves is some- 

 what acrid, notwithstanding which, it is used in some coun- 

 tries as a pot-herb. The roots have a penetrating pungency. 

 It is ungrateful to cattle, and even to geese ; although it 

 occupies a large share of pasture lands, to the exclusion of 

 grass and profitable herbs. It has been much recommended 

 as excellent for fresh wounds, externally, and against inflam- 

 matory disorders, &c. internally ; but it is now wholly out 

 of use. Meyrick, however, recommends a strong decoction 

 of the roots, as an excellent medicine in scorbutic complaints ; 

 but says, the use of it must be continued for a considerable 

 length of time before its effects will appear. Some persons 

 give the roots, boiled in milk, to keep puppies from grow- 

 ing ; but they have no such effect. The varieties of this spe- 

 cies are : the Double White, Red, White, and Red-striped j 

 Variegated, Scarlet, and Pied ; Double-quilled, or with fis- 

 tular florets ; Double Cock's-comb-shaped, white, red, and 

 speckled ; Proliferous, Childing, or Hen-and-Chicken Daisy 

 The common wild Daisy being a troublesome weed in pasture 

 lands, and the lawns and grass walks in gardens, is never cul- 

 tivated. The Garden Daisies flower in April and May, when 

 they make a pretty variety, being intermixed with plants ol 

 the same growth ; they should be planted in a shady border 

 and a loamy soil, without dung, in which they may be pre- 

 served without varying, provided the roots are transplanted 

 and parted every autumn ; which is all the culture they re- 

 quire, except keeping them clear from weeds. These were 

 formerly planted for edgings to borders, but they are very 

 unfit for this purpose, because, where they are fully exposed 

 to the sun, they frequently die in large patches, whereby the 

 edtriritrs become bald in many places. 



2. Bellis Annua ; Annual Daisy. Stem somewhat leafy 

 This is a low annual plant, seldom rising more tkan three 

 inches high, with an upright stalk, hairy leaves on the lower 

 part, but the upper part naked, and supporting a singl 

 flower like that of the Common Daisy, but smaller. Native 

 of Sicily, Spain, about Montpellier, Verona, and Nice. 

 VOL. i. 14. 



Bellium ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polyga- 

 mia Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common sim- 

 ile, with very many equal boat-shaped leaflets. Corolla : 

 compound, radiated ; in the ray female, ten or twelve ; in the 

 disk hermaphrodite, very many : proper of the hermaphro- 

 dite funnel-shaped, quadrifid, erect ; of the females, elliptic- 

 emarginate, ligulate. Stamina: in the hermaphrodite, fila- 

 menta, four, short. Antherse cylindric. Pistil: in the her- 

 maphrodite, germen turbinate ; style filiform ; stigma bifid, 

 oblong : in the females, germen turbinate ; style very short ; 

 stigma bifid, minute. Pericarp: none; calix unchanged. 

 Seeds : turbinate ; crown chaffy, eight-leaved, rounded ; down 

 with eight single awns. Receptacle : naked, conic. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix : with equal leaflets. Seeds: conic, 

 with a chaffy eight-leaved crown, and awned down. Recep- 

 tacle: naked. The species -are, 



1. Bellium Bellidioides. Scapes naked, filiform. It has 

 the habit of the Daisy, but differs essentially from it in hav- 

 ing a down to the seed ; ray white ; disk yelloW.^-Native 

 of Italy, about Rome, and in the island of Majorca. 



2. Bellium Minutum. Stem leafy. This is one of the 

 minutest of plants ; stem capillary, an inch in length ; the 

 whole plant smooth and ascending. Native of the Levant. 



Bellonia ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 superior, semiquinquefid, permanent ; divisions lanceolate, 

 acute. Corolla: monopetalous, wheel-shaped; tube very 

 short; border flat, semiquinquefid, obtuse, large. Stamina: 

 filamenta five, subulate, erect, very short. Antherse erect, 

 convergin, short. Pistil: germen inferior ; style subulate, 

 straight, longer than the stamina; stigma acute. Pericarp: 

 capsule turbinate, ovate, wrapped up in the calix, and beaked 

 with its converging divisions, one-celled. Seeds: numerous, 

 roundish, small. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla ; wheel- 

 shaped. Capsule: one-celled, inferior, many-seeded, beaked 

 with the calix. The species are, 



1 . Bellonia Aspera. Leaves ovate-Serrate : flowers co- 

 rymbed, terminating. This is a shrub ten or twelve feet in 

 height, from which issue many lateral branches. Common 

 in the warm islands of America. 



2. Bellonia Spinosa. Thorny : leaves ovate, angular, 

 tooth-serrate ; peduncles axillary, one-flowered. Discovered 

 by Swartz in Hispaniola. 



Benjamin Tree. See Laurus. 



Bennet Herb. See Geum. 



Bent Grass. See Agrostis. 



Berberis ; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth six-leaved, 

 patulous ; leaflets ovate, with a narrower base, concave, 

 alternate, smaller, coloured, deciduous Corolla: petals 

 six, roundish, concave, erect, expanding, scarcely larger 

 than the calix. Nectary, two small roundish coloured bo- 

 dies, fastened to the base of each petal. Stamina: filamenta 

 six, erect, compressed, obtuse. Antherse two, fastened on 

 each side to the top of the filamenta. Pistil : germen cylin- 

 dric, the length of the stamina ; style none ; stigma orbicu- 

 late, broader than the germen, surrounded with a sharp edge. 

 Pericarp: berry cylindric, obtuse, umbilicated with a point, 

 one-celled. Seeds .- two, oblong, cylindric, obtuse. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix: six-leaved. Petals: six, with two 

 glands at the claws. Style : none. Berry : two-seeded. 

 The species are, 



1 . Berberis Vulgaris ? Common Barberry. Peduncles ra- 



cemed; spines triple. The Common Barberry is ashrub,rising 



to the height of eight or ten feet, with stems upright and 



branched, smooth, and slightly grooved, brittle, with a white 



2U 



