628 



BREMONTIERA 



means of the powerful lancet-like apparatus of their 

 mouths, whilst the (Estridce instil terror into the 

 cattle, not by wounding them, but by the instinctive 

 dread which they cause during the act of depositing 

 the eggs, the grubs from which, when hatched, burrow 

 beneath the skin. As it is impossible to assign these 

 vernacular terms to either one or the other groups 

 with any thing like precision, it will, perhaps, be 

 safer to describe' the insects under their scientific 

 names. Some of the (Estridae, however, being suffi- 

 ciently distinguished by their name of Bot-flies, we 

 have described them under that name ; the remain- 

 der, with the Tabanidce, will therefore appear in their 

 places. 



BREMONTIERA(Z>mmfo//e), named in honour 

 of M. Bremontier, an eminent agriculturist. It is a 

 leguminous shrubby plant, introduced from the 

 Mauritius. It is also called sand-wood. 



BRENTHIDES (Schonherr). A division or sub- 

 family of coleopterous insects, belonging to the great 

 family of the Weevils (of which Schonherr enume- 

 rates more than three thousand species) and to the 

 section Orthoceri, or those having straight antennae. 

 The rostrum is long and porrected, especially in the 

 males ; the body is very long, cylindric, and narrow, 

 and the neck is distinct. The type of the division 

 is the genus Brcntus of Fabricius, and the Curculio 

 anchorago of Linnaeus may be cited as an example. 



These insects are peculiar to hot climates, one 

 species only being found in Europe, namely, the 

 Arrhenodes coronatus, Germar (Brentus ilalicus, Dej.) 

 It is a remarkable circumstance in the geographical 

 distribution of insects, that this Italian species is the 

 only one belonging to the genus Arrhenodes found in 

 the old world, the remaining species of the genus 

 being inhabitants of South America, where they are 

 the only species of the sub-family, Arrhenodes coro- 

 natus, according to information given to Latreille by 

 M. Savi, and which has been confirmed to us by one 

 of the sons of Mr. Spence, who captured many spe- 

 cimens of these insects in Italy, resides beneath the 

 bark of trees, in the midst of the nests of certain 

 species of ants which establish their abode in such 

 situations. M. Lacordaire also made the same re- 

 marks relative to the Brazilian species, and we have 

 been informed by a gentleman, recently returned 

 from an Entomological tour in North America, that 

 the Brentus maMlosus burrows beneath the bark of 

 the trees which form the Corduroy roads in the back 

 settlements. 



Tliis sub-family comprises eight genera, and about 

 seventy species, in the system of M. Schonherr. 



BREVIPENNES (Short-quills). The first of 

 the five families into which Cuvier divides his 

 " echassiers" or birds which depend for their locomo- 

 tion, at least when they are seeking their food, more 

 upon the foot than the wing. The genera which 

 are included in the present family are all dry land 

 birds, inhabiting warm, and, generally speaking, dry 

 countries. The ostrich of Africa, the rhea of South 

 America, the cassowary of the south-east of Asia, the 

 enu of Australia, and the apteryx of New Zealand, 

 are the only known genera. They will be found 

 described under their common generic names; and 

 some general notice of the family will be found in 

 the article BIRD. 



It may not, however, be irrelevant here to remark 

 with what accuracy Cuvier chooses the names for his 

 divisions of animal?, and that this is nowhere more 



remarkable than in the two divisions of birds which 

 are characterised by the shortness of their wings, 

 brachyptera and brevipennes. The former have the 

 wings short, some of them too short for being at all 

 useful in flight ; but even in these cases they are still 

 very perfectly formed wings in their bones, their 

 articulations, and their feathers more firm, compact, 

 and powerful, indeed, than those wings which are 

 used only in the air, and therefore better able to resist 

 the water, in which they act as fins. In the brevi- 

 pennes, again, there is no part of the wing capable of 

 acting powerfully even in the air ; there are no 

 quills, and the organs of motion are capable of doing 

 little more than extending the wing from the side, so 

 that it acts as a balance to the body as the birds run 

 along, which most of them do with very considerable 

 swiftness. These birds have motion on land only, 

 and in that motion they carry the axis of the body 

 horizontally, or nearly so ; while, when the brachy- 

 ptera are on land, they must carry the axis nearly 

 vertical. 



BREXIA (Brexis, rain ; leaves protect against), 

 so named by Noronha. A genus of three evergreen 

 trees, from Madagascar and neighbouring islands. 

 They belong to Pentandria Monogynia of Linnaeus, 

 and form an order of themselves in the natural 

 system. Generic character : calyx short, with five 

 rounded lobes ; petals ovate, spreading, rounded ; 

 filaments dilated at the base ; bristles round the seed- 

 vessel shorter than the stamens. These are fine hot- 

 house plants, with firm, jagged, shining leaves, having 

 flowers produced from the stems. These plants are 

 allied to Theophrasta. 



BREXIE^E. A natural order of dicotyledonous 

 plants, containing only a single genus and three 

 or four known species. It is nearly allied to the 

 Rhamneae and Celastrineae, differing from these orders 

 chiefly in its hypogynous stamens and indefinite 

 seeds. 



The essential botanical characters of the order are, 

 calyx five-partite, inferior, persistent ; petals five, 

 hypogynons ; stamens five, hypogynous, alternate 

 with the petals ; anthers oval, two-celled, bursting 

 longitudinally ; pollen triangular, united by means of 

 fine threads ; ovary superior, five-celled ; one style ; 

 fruit a five-celled, many-seeded drupe. 



Brexicce. 



The plants belonging to this order are trees with 

 simple trunks and coriaceous alternate leaves. The 

 flowers are generally of a green colour, and grow in 

 axillary umbels. They are found in Madagascar and 

 Mauritius. Their properties are as yet unknown. 



