li A S S I A B A T R A C II I A. 



fecund and the third are among the gayest of 

 nature's living productions. The ground reptiles, the 

 t-evpents, and the frog tribe, which live under the 

 shadow of those thick and perennial forests, are 

 seldom beautiful, and the former are often poisonous ; 

 but the tree sanrians rival the birds in the bril- 

 liancy of their tints ; and in the more lively ones, 

 among which may be counted the basilisks, it is not 

 very easy to distinguish reptile from bird when they 

 are in motion among the trees. 



BASS I A (Linnaeus). A genus of three species of 

 East Indian trees. Linniean class and order, Dode- 

 ciiiidrla Monogyviei : natural order, Sapotcce. Generic 

 character : calyx of three sepals, leathery, persisting ; 

 corolla bell-shaped, tube swollen ; limb eight parted, 

 erect ; stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla ; 

 anthers linear, arrow-shaped, hairy within ; style awl- 

 shaped, longer than the corolla ; berry fleshy, h've- 

 cclli'd; cells one-seeded. The Bosnia butyracea is 

 celebrated for yielding a great quantity of useful oil 

 from its seeds. 



BASS US (Fabricius). A orenus of hymenopterous 

 insects belonging to the division P/i/sirom and family 

 of the cuckoo Hies, Ichiwuinmudte. As originally 

 muted, the genus contained insects of different 

 'Hi, and Mr. Curtis has much increased the con- 

 fusion by figuring one of the Ichnenmoncs adttciti, 

 the l)i]i!(:~j)ii calculatorhis as a Bussus. As defined in 

 Gravenhortt'fl great work upon this family, it is dis- 

 tinguished by the abdomen being depressed and sessile 

 with the first joint flat, and comprises thirty-five 

 species, and three sub-genera. The species are all 

 parasitic upon other in 



BASTARD TOAD-FLAX. The Thesmm llno- 

 pJn/lliim of Linnaeus. Class and order, Pentandria 

 Jtfonogyma ; natural order, Santalaccte. Generic 

 character: calyx five cleft, with intermediate notches ; 

 corolla none ; style cloven ; drupe crowned by the 

 ciilvx. There are six species of this faruilv, all, except 

 one from the Cape of Good Hope, herbaceous. One 

 is found in England, on hiy-h open chalky pastures. 



BATRACHIA (frogs and frog-lik" animals). An 

 order of reptiles, the last of the class in Cuvier's 

 arrangement of the animal kingdom ; and very 

 properly so placed, as they may be considered as 

 the connecting link between the other vertebrated 

 animals and fishes. This is not to be taken so much 

 from the haunts of the animals as from their structure 

 They are indeed all more or less aquatic ; and if they 

 do not live actually in the water, they are found only 

 or chiefly in moist places, and they come most abroai 

 in humid states of the atmosphere. There are 

 aquatic animals of all the vertebrated classes ; am 

 iiuiiy of the others live more habitually in the 

 water than some of the batrachia ; but the organisatioi 

 of the batrachia approaches more nearly to tha 

 of fishes, than even the organisation of the vvate 

 tortoises. 



There is one habit which may be considered as 

 the sign of this organisation. All the birds and othe 

 reptiles which inhabit the waters are produced upoi 

 the land. In the breeding season the parents seel 

 the shoies and banks, and deposit their eggs ther 

 to be hatched by the action of the dry atmosphere 

 They even, in general, protect them from the moisture 

 of the atmosphere the rain and the dew. The eg; 

 even of the most aquatic bird of those species whic! 

 cannot fly, and which walk with great difficulty, anc 

 iuav therefore be said to have no element but th 



water, would be rendered abortive if they continued 

 wetted even for a very short time. It is probable 

 that the eggs of the other aquatic reptiles would suf!- r 

 rom the same cause ; for though these animals do 

 iot incubate, or sit upon their eggs like birds, yet they 

 leposit them in holes of dry banks, or in the beach 

 ,bove flood-mark, and carefully cover them up from 

 he weather. The batrachia take no such precautions, 

 >r, to speak more in accordance with the facts, they 

 lo not require the heat or the protection to bring 

 hem to maturity. 



It is a universal law, holding not merely in the 

 operations of nature, but in the works of man even 

 n his mental exertions a law to which there is not 

 me exception that, if the work is done with equal 

 skill, the result the superiority, or perfection, or at 

 \\\ events, the elaborateness of that which is produced, 

 s always in proportion to the quantity of labour 

 jestowed upon it, estimating that labour both in 

 energy and in time. This is a most important principle 

 n the study of natural history, because of its perfect 

 iniversality ; and we can apply it better in natural 

 n'story than in human action, because nature's work- 

 ings, as far as they go, are all equally skilful. 



Now we find a very striking difference in the appa- 

 rent care with which the young of different races of 

 animals are brought to maturity. Those of the per- 

 fect mammalia are cherished and defended in the 

 internal matrix defended from all action of the 

 weather, and enjoying the temperature of the mother, 

 till they are fully formed. But even among these 

 there are considerable differences ; as the kid bounds 

 and the lamb sports almost the instant of birth ; while 

 the young of the carnivora are dropped blind, and 

 remain utterly helpless for some time. The young of 

 the marsupiaiia remain in the matrix only for a time : 

 that of the large kangaroo, which may be regarded 

 as the type, or most perfect example, of marsupial 

 animals, being about forty days, at the end of which 

 period the young one is received into the marsupinm 

 (abdominal pouch), and there partially exposed to the 

 action of the atmosphere. The labours of birds in 

 forming nests for their broods, and the assiduity with 

 which one, and in some instances both of the parents 

 bring the eggs to maturity, by the heat of their own 

 bodies, are well known. In them too there are dif- 

 ferences, from the female that sits constantly, to the 

 one which leaves her eggs for the greater part of the 

 time. Then we come to the oviparous reptiles which 

 are not batrachian ; all of which lay detached ogn's, 

 or at most they are slightly formed into strings, and 

 they consist, with the exception of the shell, of mate- 

 rials not very different from the eggs of birds, only 

 they contain more gelatine and less albumen, and do 

 not (at least so easily) "boil hard." But all these 

 take some means of protecting the eggs from tne 

 direct action of the atmosphere, as if the naked action 

 of that were too much for the power of life which is in 

 them, or, as if that life required for its development 

 something more than the common working of the 

 elements. 



Among the mammalia, wherever the mother is, the 

 young, in the foetal state, is also there, whether uterine 

 or marsupial. But of animals that are oviparous, or 

 have the undeveloped young separated from the 

 mother, all those which have been enumerated may 

 be considered as natives of the land, and produced or 

 evolved by a higher temperature than they could find 

 in the water in its ordinary state: requiring also 

 D D"-J 



