178 



BOM 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



BOM 



twisted, the height of the stamina ; stigma capitate. Peri- 

 carp : none. Calix : enlarged, closed, incrusting the seed. 

 Seed: one, oblong, obtuse-angular. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix. small, entire. Corolla: one-petalled, bell-shaped, 

 plaited. Seed: one, naked, inferior. Stamina: one, two, 

 or three. The species are, 



1. Boerhavia Erectaj Upright Hogweed. Stem erect, 

 smooth ; flowers two-stamined. This was discovered at 

 Vera Cruz, and in the Society Isles : it is an annual plant. 



2. Boerhavia Diffusa ; Spreading Hogweed. Stein smooth 

 and even, diffused ; leaves ovate. The flowers, in corymbose 

 heads, are purple, have only one stamen, and a twin anthem;. 

 Native of both Indies. 



3. Boerhavia Hirsuta. Stem diffused, pubescent ; leaves 

 ovate, repand ; flowers in heads, scarlet. Native of Jamaica. 



4. Boerhavia Scandens ; Climbing Hogweed. Stem erect ; 

 flowers two-stamined, in umbels, green ; leaves cordate, acute. 

 Native of Jamaica, especially about Spanish Town. 



5. Boerhavia Repens. Stem creeping. Native of Nubia. 



6. Boerhavja Angustifolia. Leaves linear, acute. Na- 

 tive place unknown. 



7- Boerhavia Tetrandria. Stem creeping ; flowers four- 

 stamined. Native of the Society Isles. 



8. Boerhavia Adscendens. Leaves oblong-ovate, some- 

 what fleshy; flowers panicled ; peduncles two -flowered; stem 

 ascending. Native of Guinea. 



9. Boerhavia Plumbaginea. Leaves subcordate, orbicu- 

 late-ovate, pubescent beneath ; flowers in umbels ; corolla 

 pale rose colour. Native of Spain. 



Bog-Berry. See Faccinium. 



Bog-Rush. See Schecnus. 



Boletus, is characterised by Linneus as a horizontal Fun- 

 gus, porous, or punched with lobes underneath. In the Sys- 

 tema Nature, 14th edition, only twenty-one species are recit- 

 ed ; eleven of which are parasitical and stemless, the rest are 

 stipitated. Mr. Hudson has thirteen species, five of which 

 are not in Linneus, but chiefly from Schoeffer, who has a vast 

 many others not noticed by Lumens. From the Boletus 

 Igniarius is prepared the Amadon, commonly used on the 

 continent for tinder, to receive the spark struck from the 

 steel by the flint ; and the Agaric, for stopping haemorrhages 

 in amputation. 



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

 mia Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common, 

 flattish, imbricate, with somewhat equal, linear, sharp scales. 

 Corolla : compound, radiate; corollets, hermaphrodite, tubu- 

 lar, numerous in the hemispheric disk ; females, several in the 

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

 female, linear, entire. Stamina : filamenta five, capillary, 

 very short ; anthera? cylindric, tubular. Pistil, in the her- 

 maphrodites: germen oblong ; style filiform, length nearly of 

 the hermaphrodite; stigmas two, revolute. Pericarp: none. 

 Calic : unchanged. Seed, in the hermaphrodites, solitary, 

 compressed, crowned, with a five-toothed margin : in the 

 females, extremely similar. Receptacle : naked, hemispheric. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calis : common subimbricate, with 

 linear scales. Corolla: radiate. Germina : compressed, 

 vertical. Down : obscurely toothed, two-horned. Recep- 

 tacle : honey-combed. The species are, 



1. Boltonia Asteriodes; Starwort-fowered Boltonia. Leaves 

 quite entire. Native of South America. 



2. Bombax Glastifolia ; Glaucous-leaved Boltonia. Lower 

 leaves serrate. Native of South America. 



Bvmlax ; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Polyan- 

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

 tubular, campanulate, permanent ; mouth three or five cleft, 



obtuse, erect. Corolla : five-parted, spreading ; segments 

 oblong, concave. Stamina : filamenta five or more, subulate, 

 the length of the corolla, connate at the base ; anthers 

 oblong, bent in, incumbent. Pistil: germen roundish; 

 style filiform, the length of the stamina ; stigma capitate, 

 five-toothed. Pericarp : capsule large, turbinate, oblong, 

 five-celled, five-valved ; valves woody. Seeds: very many, 

 round, woolly. Receptacle: columnar, five-cornered, forming 

 the partitions. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-cleft. 

 Stamina: five or more. Capsule: woody, five-celled, five- 

 valved. Seeds: woolly. Receptacle: five-cornered. The 

 plants of this genus are all tender, and will not thrive in the 

 open air in England. Bombax, or silk-cotton, is propagated 

 by seeds, which must be sown on a hot-bed in the spring ; if 

 the seeds are good, the plants will appear in a month, and 

 will be strong enough to transplant in a month after, when 

 they should be each planted in a small pot, filled with fresh 

 loamy earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tanner's 

 bark, being careful to shade them from the sun till they have 

 taken fresh root ; after which they should have a large share 

 of fresh air admitted to them when the weather is warm, to 

 prevent them from being drawn up weak ; they must also be 

 frequently refreshed with water, which must not be given in 

 large quantities. In this bed they remain till autumn, provided 

 there be room for the plants under the glasses. In the autumn 

 they must be removed into the bark-stove, where they must 

 constantly remain, being too tender to thrive in this country 

 in any other situation. In winter they must have but little 

 wet, especially if they cast their leaves ; but in the summer 

 they should be frequently refreshed with water, and in warm 

 weather must have plenty of fresh air admitted to them. With 

 this management the plants will make great progress, and in a 

 few years will reach the glasses on the top of the stove. They 

 form an agreeable variety in a large stove, where they have 

 room to grow, their leaves'having adifferent appearance from 

 most other plants. The species are, 



1 . Bombax Pentandrum. Flowers fi ve-stamined ; leaves 

 ih sevens. A tree, sixty or eighty feet high. Bark greenish, 

 smooth, easily separating from the wood ; branches near the 

 summit pendent; leaves on long peduncles ; flowers in a sim- 

 ple umbel ; petals five, white nnd velvety without, smooth, 

 concave, and of a purple or delicate rose colour within ; fruit 

 half a foot long, shaped like a cucumber, very slender at its 

 base ; seeds oval, with a shaipish point, enveloped with a great 

 quantity of short dark cotton, which is not spun, but used 

 for stuffing pillows, mattresses, &c. Native of both Indies. 



2. Bombax Ceiba. Flowers many-sttunined ; leaves qui- 

 nate. The canoes now made in the West Indies from this 

 tree frequently carry from fifteen to twenty hogsheads of 

 sugar, from six to twelve hundred weight each ; the average 

 about twenty-five tons burden. When sawn into boards, and 

 then well saturated with lime-water, the wood bears expo- 

 sure to the weather many years ; it is also formed into laths 

 for roofs, curing-pots, and hogshead-heading. When the 

 tree decays, it becomes a nest for the Macaca beetle, the 

 caterpillar of which, gutted and fried, is esteemed by many 

 persons one of the greatest delicacies. The down which is 

 enclosed in the seed-vessels is seldom used, except by the 

 poorer inhabitants to stuff pillows or chairs ; and it is gene- 

 rally thought unwholesome to lie upon. It is a native of 

 both Indies ; and some modern writers have affirmed, that 

 there are trees of the silk-cotton now growing in the West 

 Indies, so large as not to be fathomed by sixteen men, and 

 so tall that an arrow cannot be shot to their top. 



3. Bombax Heptaphyllum. Flowers many-stamined ; 

 loa\ us sevenfold. This tree grows to the height of fifty feel; 



