BRAZIL NUT BREEZE FLY. 



with long tails to their lower segments. This last 

 was called Epidendrum caudalum by Linnaeus. 



BRAZIL NUT is the Bcrtholetm (L. C. Ber- 

 tholet, a chemist) excclsa of Humboldt. It is a lofty- 

 growing tree, common about Para, in South America, 

 and yields those nut? now very common in fruiterers' 

 shops. 



BREAD FRUIT is the Arlocarpta (bread fruit) 

 incisa (cut-leaved) of Linnaeus. The flowers are 

 monoecious, that is, males and females, separate on 

 the same plant. The former is a cylindrical catkin. 

 ( 'alyx none ; petals two ; filament as long as the petals. 

 Female flowers have neither calyx nor corolla ; 

 ovaries many, collected in a globe ; style filiform ; 

 drupe compound. This tree, of which so much has 

 been written, is found on the continent of India, and 

 on the islands of the South Seas. The tree grows to 

 u middling 1 size at Malacca, and bears a round rough- 

 skinned fruit, as large as a child's head. The skin is, 



Artccorpa. 



however, thin, and has a conical-shaped core, sur- 

 rounded by a white farinaceous pith-like substance, 

 which is the eatable part, after being roasted in thick 

 slices : the taste is similar to that of a frosted potato. 

 In- this way it may be certainly used as bread, when 

 nothing better can be had, but is far inferior to the 

 yam {Dioscorea saliva'), which is capable of being 

 cultivated everywhere in those climates in which 

 the bread-fruit tree appears. The fruit is ripe in 

 December, and is dressed in various ways, according 

 to the taste or convenience of the parties using it. 

 The Dutch cooks improve it, by broiling or frying it 

 in palm oil. Besides the use of the fruit, the natives of 

 the South Sea islands apply different parts of the 

 tree to various purposes. The wood is used in boat- 

 building ; a cloth is made of the inner bark. The 

 male catkins perve for tinder ; the leaves for wrapping 

 up food, and for wiping hands instead of towels ; and 

 the juice for making cement for filling up the cracks 

 of water-vessels. There are, according to Forster, 

 several varieties of the bread-fruit. The principal of 

 these is one without seeds. The natives of Otaheite 

 reckon at least tight, differing in the form of the leaf 

 and fruit. 



In 1 793, the bread-fruit was introduced to the West 

 Indies by the unfortunate Captain Bligh, and subse- 

 quently to other tropical parts of the American con- 



tinent. It has not, however, answered the expecta- 

 tions of those who advised its introduction to those 

 countries, as an article of negro food. 



The A. integrifolia, or Jaca-tree, is supposed to be 

 only a variety of the incisa, because its leaves are 

 sometimes divided ; but the trees are very different 

 when seen growing together. The incisa is a low 

 spreading tree, very much like a common standard 

 fig-tree ; whereas the integrifolia grows more upright, 

 assuming a conical-formed head, though the lower 

 branches rest on the ground. The fruit are produced 

 at the points of the twigs or branches, and, from their 

 weight, are often seen resting on the ground. Some- 

 times it happens that they fall into the cracks caused 

 by drought, and they ripen, raising up the soil round 

 them, and to greater perfection, it is said, than if 

 ripened in the air. When such fruit are taken, they 

 require to be dug up ; hence the report that the tree 

 bears fruit upon the roots ! Both kinds of the bread 

 fruit are met with in British collections, and are pro- 

 pagated by " making stout, well-ripened cuttings, 

 placed in pots of sand plunged under a hand-glass in 

 moist heat." Sweet. 



BREAD-NUT is the Erosimum (good to eat) 

 alicastrum of Swartz, a genus of two species of ever- 

 green shrubs, natives of Jamaica. The flowers are 

 polygamous, and belong to the natural order Urticecc 

 The leaves and young branches are full of gum, and 

 are used as food for cattle. The fruit, either boiled 

 or roasted, is sometimes used by the negroes, and 

 the poorer classes of white inhabitants, in times of 

 scarcity, and is said to be highly nutritious, resembling 

 in some degree roasted Spanish chestnuts. 



BREAM (Abramis, Cuv., Cyprinus, Lin.). A 

 genus ot" soft-finned fishes-, belonging to the division 

 which have abdominal fins, and to the carp family 

 CYFKINIDE^E, which see for the general characters 

 and habits of the family. The general characters 

 are : no spines on the body, and no beards or fila- 

 mentous appendages. The dorsal fin short, and 

 placed behind the ventral ones. The anal fin long. 

 There are two species known with us, the common 

 bream, and the little bream, the first of considerable 

 value as an esculent fish, the second of comparatively 

 little. There are also two or three species, but 

 generally speaking, of small value or interest, which 

 seasonally ascend the rivers which discharge their 

 waters into the Baltic, and there are also some in 

 India, and in other parts of the world. They are, 

 properly speaking, fresh water fishes, and they prefer 

 deep and still waters, as lakes, and the pools of slow 

 running rivers. The common bream is found in 

 many of the lakes and rivers of England, and in 

 some of the more southerly parts of Scotland, as in 

 the waters of Lochmaben ; but it has not been found 

 in the north of that country, where lakes are more 

 numerous and deeper. If there is sufficient depth of 

 water, they breed freely and thrive well as pond fishes. 

 BREEZE FLY. A term of very indefinite sig- 

 nification, employed to designate such dipterous 

 insects as attack cattle and horses, causing them to 

 exhibit violent signs of ularm, such as running and 

 tossing themselves about. These symptoms are pro- 

 duced by various insects belonging to two different 

 families, for both of which the term has been 

 employed in common with another, equally inde- 

 finite, that of Gad-fly. The family Tabanidce produce 

 these effects by sucking the blood of the animals, 

 which they cause to flow by wounding the skin by 

 a A : 2 



