o-W 



BOBARTIA. BOLBOCERAS. 



brings a little breath even in the utmost intensity of 

 the heat), begin to blow their little signal blasts from 

 every point of the compass in turn ; yet the leaves 

 are, if possible, more still than ever, and it is pitchy 

 dark. But there comes a gleam of light, which 

 envelopes earth and air, and, ere the mind recovers 

 its surprise, crash go the elements, as if a thousand 

 thunders of the loudest voice were concentrated into 

 one peal. Then, flash after flash, and peal after peal, 

 as if the night of final destruction had arrived. And 

 the commotion is on no local or stinted scale ; for 

 well nigh " from Darien to the vexed Antarctic 

 main," the Andes on their eastern slope are in one 

 continued glare of lightning, and one voice of thunder, 

 amid which the fire of the volcano is not seen, or the 

 sound of the earthquake heard. Then are " the 

 windows of heaven opened," and amid the glare of 

 the lightning, and the bellowing of the thunder, the 

 clouds, as it were, tumble headlong, till the earth 

 receives one continuous cascade from the sky, the 

 section of which is many hundreds of miles in area, 

 and Niagara itself is but the emptying of a bottle in 

 comparison. 



This is an arousing for all the creatures, from the 

 highest roosting bird down to the boas, and the 

 sounds of terror at the present danger, and of joy at 

 the plenty which this violent outbreak of nature is 

 sure to bring, are blended together in so many notes 

 and keys, that the creatures appear to be as much 

 in chaos as the elements, and it is wriggling, and 

 crawling, and running, and climbing, and flying, all 

 to save the life. Nor is it any* wonder; for before 

 man can venture to look abroad from his hiding 

 place, every ravine has its cascade, every hollow its 

 lake, and each of the larger rivers rolls onward as a 

 sea, as if they had mustered their powers to give 

 battle to the ocean. Such is the turn of the tropical 

 season, which raises the great serpents of America 

 from their temporary inaction, and sends them high 

 in the trees, or distant to the banks, to begin the 

 season of activity. 



Besides the three sections of boa which have been 

 mentioned, there are other two, which are somewhat 

 different in the characters of their heads, do not attain 

 the same dimensions, and are not so formidable. One 

 of these, an American species, is the Boa hortulana of 

 Linnaeus. It has horny plates on the muzzle, and the 

 jaws furrowed with a groove which passes under the 

 eye, and terminates in a slit a little behind that organ. 

 The other is a native of the east, and is less closely 

 allied to the typical species : it is the Boa viperina 

 of Shaw, It has the body with a sort of crest or keel 

 along the back, and very much compressed. There 

 are no furrows along the jaws or under the eyes, but 

 the plates on the muzzle are a little raised in the 

 fentre, something in the form of double wedges, with 

 the one point in advance and the other to the rear. 



The three sub-genera which have been separated 

 from all the sections of the boas, and not included in 

 the colubers, are SCYTALI, EKIX, and ERPETON, of 

 which some account will be given under these titles. 



BOBARTIA (Linnaeus). A genus comprising 

 three species of perennial herbs, introduced from 

 southern Africa. Class and order Triandria Mono- 

 gynia, and natural order Iriciece. The flowers of the 

 bobartia are not only curious, but very bqautiful, as 

 all the order are to which it belongs. 



BOCCONIA (Linnaeus). A family of two spe- 

 cies of evergreen shrubs, natives of the West Indies. 



Class and order Dodccandria Munngynia, and natural 

 order PapavcracecR. Generic character : calyx of two 

 sepals, deciduous ; stamens seated below the germen, 

 filaments short, anthers linear, and erect ; style short, 

 cloven ; capsule on a foot-stalk, pod-formed,' crowned 

 with the style, one-seeded, two valves opening below. 



BGEHMERIA (Jacquin). A genus of various 

 character, comprising fourteen species of shrubs, under 

 shrubs and herbs, chiefly from Nepal, and the West 

 Indies. Class and order Monatcia Tetrandria, and na- 

 tural order Urticcac. Generic character : male flower 

 calyx four-parted, nrceolus, none; filaments awl- 

 shaped ; anthers roundish, double. Female flower 

 calyx none; scales clustered, oblong; germen in- 

 versely oval ; style elongated, filiform, feathery ; 

 akenium with the persisting style. These plants are 

 only useful in botanical collections, none of them 

 possessing any known useful properties. 



BOG MOSS is the Sphagnum vnf^nrc of crypto- 

 gamic botanists. It is the most useful of all the 

 mosses for packing fruit, or delicate plants , and is 

 usually found on bogs, or in wet woods. 



BOG RUSH is the Sc/ieeims of Lmneeus, a genus 

 of five species, four of them foreign. Class and order 

 Triandria Monogynia, and natural order Cyperacece. 



BOLBOCERAS(Kirby; Odontecus, Zeigler, MSS). 

 A genus of lamellicorn beetles (Scarateeus, Lin- 

 naeus), separated by Mr. Kirby,in the Linnaean Trans- 

 actions, vol. xii., from the Latreillian genus Geotrupcs, 

 from which it chiefly differs in the structure of the 

 antennae, which are eleven-jointed, the three terminal 

 articulations forming a very large compressed and 

 suborbicular club, of which the central plate is con- 

 cealed by the two outer ones, which enclose it as iu 

 a box. The mentum is entire in front, one of the 

 jaws is entire and the other with two tooth, and the 

 legs are inserted at equal distances. The males of 

 these insects are distinguished by a long and erect 

 horn upon the crown of the head. The type of the 

 genus is the Scarabczus mobUicornis of Fabricius ; it is 

 about one-third of an inch long, and of a castaneous 

 black colour. It occurs, but rarely, in various places 

 near London. Latreille was informed by one of the 

 sous of the celebrated ornithologist Le Vaillant, that 

 frogs and toads are very fond of these insects, and 

 that he had obtained many specimens by opening 

 the bodies of some of these reptiles. This spcrii s 

 varies in colour, and some authors have considered 

 the Scarabfeus tcstaceus of Fabricius merely as a 

 variety, but Mr. Stephens regards them as distinct: 

 his reasons, however, founded chiefly upon the deve- 

 lopment of the horns of the head and thonix appear 

 to us to be inconclusive, as the same kind of distinc- 

 tive variations occurs in other cornuted beetles, as 

 in Sifiguniuin qiiadricorne (see Zoological Journal, 

 No. 9, and Kirby and Speiice, Introduction, vol. iv. 

 p. 166). It is a curious circumstance, and one which 

 requires considerable investigation, as bearing upon 

 the analogies of cornuted animals amongst the higher 

 groups, that amongst the males, which sex alone is 

 furnished with these appendages, there are generally 

 to be observed t\vo kinds of individuals, the larger 

 ones being much more robust and armed with the 

 most fully developed spines or teeth, ami the smaller 

 ones having the armature of the head and thorax 

 remarkably small, no intermediate specimens being 

 found amongst them, whence it has been supposed 

 that the latter specimens arc neuters. In the insects 

 in question the reputed variety, Seal-abacus teslaceus, 



