BIMANA 



are of a deep, bright-yellow colour, and its leaves are 

 occasionally a foot and a half long, and nine inches 

 broad. Bignonia venusta, welted trumpet-flower, is a 

 climbing shrub of Rio Janeiro, producing flowers of 

 a vivid orange-vermilion colour. 



379 



BIONOXIA. RADICANS. n, calyx ; b, corolla; c, section of 

 corolla, showing the situation of the stamens ; d, pistil. 



The bitter juice and tender shoots of Bignonia 

 leucoxylon, or white-wood of Jamaica, are supposed 

 to be an antidote against the poisonous juice of 

 the manchineel. Bignonia tclfmri<e is cultivated in 

 Madagascar for the sake of iis fleshy fruit, which 

 has an agreeable flavour, and is prized as an article 

 of food. The leaves of Bignonia chica yield by 

 decoction a red resinous-like matter, called chica, 

 which is used by dyers, and is employed by the 

 Indians of Rio Meta and Orinoco to paint their 

 bodies red. In commerce it is met with in the form 

 of round cakes, five or six inches in diameter, and 

 two or three inches thick. To cotton, it imparts an 

 orange-red colour. The tough shoots of Bignonia 

 keteropkylla, or chirire, a native of Guiana, are woven 

 as wicker-work. The leaves of Bignonia Indica are 

 deemed emollient. Several species of bignonia found 

 in Brazil, yield excellent timber, used in the construc- 

 tion of houses and ships, as well as in the manufac- 

 ture of bows. 



Tecoma, formerly Bignonia radicans, is a hardy 

 climbing plant of great beauty, which ascends the 

 tallest trees and the highest rocks, and is capable of 

 being reared in the open air in this country against a 

 wall. lacaranda, another genus of the order, furnishes 

 species remarkable for the elegance of their foliage, 

 and their beautiful blue or purple flowers. 



Catalpa syringifolia, an American tree belonging 

 to this order, furnishes a most useful and durable 

 wood. This tree sometimes attains a height of fifty 

 feet, with a diameter of a foot and a half or two feet. 

 Its leaves are very large, while its flowers are showy 

 and white with violet and yellow spots. Its bark, 

 which is of a silver-grey colour, is said to be tonic 

 and stimulant. Honey collected from the flowers is 

 said to be poisonous. An old catalpa exists in 

 Grays Inn Gardens, which is reported to have been 

 planted by Lord Bacon. Catalpa longissima is a 

 most important timber tree found in the West Indies. 

 The French call it Chenc noir, or black oak. 



The root of Spathodea longiflora has an agreeable 

 taste, and, along with the fragrant flowers of the tree, 

 is used in some parts of India, in the form of infusion, 



as a cooling drink in fevers. The purple sweet- 

 smelling flowers are considered by the Hindoos as 

 acceptable to their gods, and are offered by them in 

 their temples. 



The genus Eccremocarpus differs from the other 

 genera in this order, in having a single-celled ovary 

 and capsule. The remaining genera are Ampkilobium, 

 Fieldia, Cfiilopsis, Cafampelis, and Streptocarpus. 



BIMANA (two-handed), the appellation which is 

 given to man, considered as an order of mammalia, 

 and without reference to his peculiar character, as 

 possessing an intellectual nature in addition to his 

 animal or material one. In consequence of possessing 

 the intellectual nature, man differs so much from the 

 rest of animated nature that he can hardly be consi- 

 dered as part of the system. It is true that, in so far 

 as he is material, his body must obey the laws of 

 matter, or overcome them only by means of organi- 

 sations mechanically fitted for that purpose, just as is 

 the case with other animals ; but when we come to 

 study the structure of his body, and the functions 

 which it is capable of performing, we find that they 

 are regulated by principles to which there is nothing 

 analogous in the rest of creation. 



When we examine the other animals in conjunc- 

 tion with the physical circumstances under which 

 they exist, we find so perfect a coincidence between 

 the animal and the circumstances, that we can at 

 once say the one is made for the other, and that the 

 animal is perfect in its place. One is fitted for one 

 climate and surface, and another for another ; but 

 they are all equally well-fitted for their several places . 

 and when we attempt to take them out of these, their 

 nature resists ; and, if we push the case to extremi- 

 ties, their life yields. But man is not completely in 

 his element any where in wild nature, and as little 

 can we say that any w here he is completely out of it. 



Place man in the very richest spot that can be 

 found upon earth, and notwithstanding the richest 

 luxuriance of nature that luxuriance in which all 

 the rest of the creatures wanton, as it were, in the 

 fulness of enjoyment, there is so far from being 

 enough there for the full development of his powers, 

 that these seem to remain inert and he to languish, in 

 proportion to the richness of that plenty in the midst 

 of which he is set. 



But still the case is not one of merely physical 

 consideration, in which as we move from the one end of 

 the scale to the other the result is subject to a uniform 

 change ; for when we take the opposite character, 

 that of the earth where it is the least productive, we 

 find that it is nearly as unfavourable to the full deve- 

 lopment of the powers of man as that in which na- 

 tural production is at a maximum. 



From this we are compelled to acknowledge that 

 there must be something more in man than merely 

 an adaptation to the general laws and action of ma- 

 terial nature : for if not, then assuredly man forms 

 an anomaly in the creation an imperfect creature, 

 while all else is most admirably perfect. 



When we consider the other creatures in a state of 

 nature, and the natural circumstances under which 

 they exist, we find the adaptation of the one to 

 the other, and also the relation of every creature to 

 the whole, so complete, that we can have no hesitation 

 in at once pronouncing that they and all their adapta- 

 tions are entirely parts of the one system and design 

 of the present world ; that their Hole end and purpose 

 are accomplished when they have borne their part in 



