163 



BET 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



BET 



things. The leaf and root are said to be excellent food for 

 man and beast, not liable to be affected by drought, or to 

 destruction from insects. The leaves are twelve or fifteen 

 inches broad or more, and of proportionable length, and 

 may be gathered every fortnight during the season. The 

 roots weigh from ten to twenty pounds ; they have an earthy 

 taste, and are mawkishly sweet, either boiled, fried, or in 

 salad. The young, thick, fleshy stalks, divested of the leafy- 

 part, peeled or scraped, then boiled and served up with but- 

 ter, are tender, and agreeably tasted ; as are also the leaves, 

 to boil occasionally as Spinach and other small greens. 



3. Beta Maritima ; Sea Beet. Flowers double, or twin ; 

 leaflets of the calix even, not toothed. It is a native of Hol- 

 land ; and is also found plentifully about Nottingham, and 

 on the sea-coast, and in the salt marshes of Great Britain. 



4. Beta Patula ; Spreading Beet. Flowers heaped ; all the 

 leaves linear-lanceolate ; branches divaricated. It flowers 

 in August. Native of the island of Madeira. 



Betel, or Betle. See Piper. 



Betonica; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Gym- 

 nospermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, tubular, cylindric, five-toothed, awned, permanent. 

 Corolla: monopetalous, ringent; tube bent in, cylindric; 

 upper lip roundish, entire, flat, erect ; lower trifid ; middle 

 division broader, roundish, emarginate. Stamina : filamenta 

 four, subulate, the length of the throat; two shorter, inclined 

 to the upper lip. Antheree roundish. Pistil : germen four- 

 parted ; style, form, situation, and size of the stamina ; stigma 

 bifid. Pericarp: none. Calix: fostering the seeds in its 

 bosom. Seeds: four, ovate. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 awned. Corolla : upper lip ascending, flattish ; tube cylin- 

 dric. They may be propagated by seeds, or by parting the 

 roots. They require a shady situation and a moist stiff 

 soil. The best time to transplant and separate the roots, is 

 in autumn ; but the seeds should be sown in the spring, 

 upon a shady border, and they will require no other care 

 but to keep them clean from weeds, and to thin them where 

 they are too close. The species are, 



1. Betonica Officinalis, Wood Betony. Spike interrupted ; 

 helmet of the corolla entire ; middle division of the lower 

 lip emarginate ; calices smoothish. There are two varieties 

 of this species. Betony, says Linneus, was formerly much 

 used in medicine; but it is discarded from modern practice. 

 When fresh, it intoxicates ; the leaves when dry excite sneez- 

 ing : sheep eat it, but goats refuse it. The leaves and flowers, 

 according to Lewis, have an herbaceous, roughish, and some- 

 what bitterish taste, with a weak aromatic flavour. An infu- 

 sion or light decoction of them may be drank as tea ; or a 

 saturated tincture, in rectified spirits, may be given in laxity 

 and debility of the viscera. The sneezing quality of the dried 

 leaves seems to be merely owing to the rough hairs on them. 

 The roots are bitter, and very nauseous : in a small dose they 

 vomit and purge violently. Meyrick informs us, that many 

 people have been cured of inveterate head-aches, which 

 resisted every other remedy, by daily breakfasting on a tea 

 made of the leaves and tops of this herb : he says, the dried 

 leaves are often smoked as tobacco, in disorders of the head 

 and stomach, and that the young leaves, beaten into a con- 

 serve, are beneficial in the jaundice, falling-sickness, palsy, 

 gout, and dropsy ; as also in colds, coughs, wheezing, short- 

 ness of breath, and sharp defluxions on the lungs. A strong 

 decoction of the plant kills worms, removes obstructions, 

 takes away stitches and other pains in the back and sides, 

 and eases the colic. Bruised, and applied to green wounds, 

 it quickly heals them, and draws thorns, splinters, and other 

 bodies, out of the flesh. It is a native of woods, heaths, and 



pastures, among bushes; flowering from the beginning of 

 July to September. 



2. Betonica Orientalis ; Oriental Betony. Spike entire, 

 middle division of the lip of the corolla quite entire. First 

 discovered in the Levant. 



3. Betonicn Alopecuros ; Fox-tail Betony. Spike leafy 

 at the base ; helmet of the corolla bifid. Native of the 

 mountains of Savoy, Piedmont, Austria, Carniola, Silesia, 

 and Provence. 



4. Betonica Hirsuta ; Hairy Betony. Spike leafy at the 

 base ; helmet of the corolla entire. Native of the Alps, 

 Appenines, and Pyrenees. 



5. Betonica Heraclea. Spike with woolly calices ; teeth 

 filiform; leaves lanceolate, naked; stem and leaves almost 

 smooth ; corollas yellow. Native of the Levant. 



6. Betonica Stricta ; Danish Betony. Spike oblong ; 

 helmet of the corolla entire ; middle division of the lower 

 lip notch-waved ; calices hairy. Native of Denmark. 



7. Betonica Incana ; Hoary Betony. Spike interrupted ; 

 helmet of the corolla bifid; middle division of the lower lip 

 notched ; tube tomentose, bent in. Native of Italy. 



Betula ; a genus of the class Monojcia, order Tetrandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male flowers, in a cylindric ament. 

 Calix : ament imbricate on every side, loose, cylindric ; 

 consisting of three flowered scales, in each of which are two 

 very minute scales, placed at the sides ; three equal flos- 

 cules, fixed to the disk of each scale of the calix. Perianth 

 in each one-leafed, small, entire, three or four parted ; divi- 

 sions ovate, obtuse. Corolla . none. Stamina : filamenta 

 to each four, very small. Antherse twin. Female f overs, 

 in an ament of the same plant. Calix : ament cylindric or 

 roundish, imbricate, with two-flowered scales. Corolla: 

 none. Pistil : germen proper, ovate, compressed, very 

 small, two-seeded; styles two, setaceous ; stigmas simple. 

 Pericarp: none. Ament under each scale cherishing the 

 seeds of two florets. Seeds: solitary, ovate. ESSEN'TUI, 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calix: one-leafed, three-cleft, three- 

 flowered. Corolla: four-parted. Female. Calit: one-leafed, 

 subtrifid, two-flowered. Seed: with a winged membrane 

 on each side. The species are, 



1. Betula Alba : Common Birch Tree. Leaves ovate, acu- 

 minate, serrate. This tree is known at first sight by the 

 silvery colour of its bark : it is of a middling or rather inferior 

 size among other forest trees. The wood of Birch is very 

 white ; women's shoe-heels and pattens, and packing cases, 

 are made of it. It is planted along with hazel, to make char- 

 coal for forges. In the northern parts of Lancashire they 

 make a great quantity of besoms with the twigs, for expor- 

 tation. The bark is of great use in dying wool yellow, and 

 particularly in fixing fugacious colours. For this purpose it is 

 best to use it dry, and to disbark trees of eighteen or twenty 

 years' growth, at the time when the sap is flowing. The trees 

 should stand, and be cut down the following winter. The 

 black American Birch may be applied equally well to the 

 same purpose. The Highlanders of Scotland use the bark for 

 tanning leather, and for making ropes ; and sometimes they 

 burn the outer rind instead of candles. With the fragments 

 dexterously braided, the Laplanders make themselves shoes 

 and baskets ; they use large thick pieces, set out with a hole 

 in the middle to fit the m-ck, for a surtout to keep off the 

 rain. The Russians, Poles, and Norwegians, cover their 

 houses with it, laying turf three or four inches thick over. 

 In Kamtschatka they make hats and drinking cups of it. The 

 wood was fonnerly used by the Scotch Highlanders for their 

 arrows ; but now by the wheelwright, and for most rustic 

 implements ; by the turner, for trenchers, bowls, ladles, &c. 



