642 



BUGWORT BULL A. 



natives of Britain ; the former resembles, and pos- 

 sesses nearly the same qualities as Borage. Its root 

 was formerly used for giving colour to the lips and 

 cheeks of those who were told they were sick or too 

 pale. The flowers secrete honey, which is eagerly 

 gathered by bees. A. tinctoria is cultivated in the 

 south of France for the roots, which give a fine deep 

 red to oils, wax, and all unctuous substances, as well 

 as spirits of wine. This is called Rhatany Root in 

 commerce, and is much used by apothecaries for 

 colouring plaisters, lip-salves, &c., and by vintners 

 for staining the corks of their port-wine bottles, or 

 for colouring the compound sometimes sold as port- 

 wine. 



BUGWORT is the Cimifiiga (bug-driver) of 

 botanists. A genus of four species (formerly called 

 Actce) of perennial herbs. The flowers are poly- 

 andrious, and the plants rank in the order Ranun- 

 culaceas. Whether any of the species possess the 

 virtue attributed by the name is uncertain ; but the 

 root of C. serpentaria, called Black-snake Root, is 

 used, it is said successfully, by the native practitioners 

 of physic in North America, for curing the bite of the 

 rattlesnake. 



BULBINE (Willdenow). A genus partly of 

 bulbs, whence the name is derived. They have 

 hexandrious flowers, and belong to the order Aspho- 

 deleas. They are natives of the Cape and New Hol- 

 land, and, like most of the bulbous plants from the 

 same localities, are desirable ornaments for the green- 

 house and conservatory, the flowers being both showy 

 and fragrant. Their propagation is also easy, as they 

 produce abundance of suckers. Linnaeus, R. Brown, 

 and Thunberg, ranked several of the bulbines with 

 the anthericums. 



BULBOCASTANUM is the specific name of 

 the Earth-nut, given in English botany by Smith arid 

 Sowerbv : noticed under its proper name. 



BULBOCODIUM (a woolly bulb), so called by 

 Linnaeus. Of this genus there are two species ; one 

 Spanish, the other from the Crimea. They are 

 hexandrious, and belong to the order MelanthacctE. 

 They flower only in the spring, and have much the 

 appearance of a crocus. 



BULIMULUS (Leach). A genus separated 

 from BULIMUS, which see. 



BULIMUS (Lamarck; HELIX, Linnaeus), or more 

 properly BULINUS, Mr. Broderip having pointed out 

 the propriety of correcting the orthography, it being 

 evidently a typographical error in Scopoli's work, 

 which has been copied by subsequent writers. Of this 

 beautiful genus of molluscs, all of which are terrestrial, 

 some were blended by Linnanis in the genus Bulla, 

 and others with the genus Helix, from which they 

 essentially differ in several points, and particularly in 

 never being of an orbicular shape. The animal, it is 

 true, in every part of its organisation, resembles that 

 of the common helix ; but the structure of the shell 

 being altogether different, it must necessarily be sepa- 

 rated from either the genus Helix or Bulla. This mol- 

 lusc is ovate; oblong, or spiral, more or less ventri- 

 cose ; sometimes sublurriculated ; the summit of the 

 spire obtuse ; the last whorl larger than all the others 

 united ; the aperture entire, longer than wide ; mar- 

 gin very unequal ; the columella straight, smooth, 

 not truncated, or .widened at the base ; and when the> 

 shell has attained maturity, a reflected lip is formed, 

 thickened round its circumference on the right side, 

 and frequently nearly covering the umbilicus on the 

 other. In the B. ovata, the type of this genus, the 



| outer lip has a thickened callosity at the junction of 

 the columella, not noticed by Lamarck. These mol- 

 luscs have no opcrcnlum ; their substance in some 

 | species is extremely fragile ; and in a young state the 

 margin of the aperture is smooth and sharp ; all of 

 them are oviparous ; and the eggs of some species 

 are nearly as large as sparrows' eggs. Many of the 

 species are sinister, or with the whorls turning towards 

 ! the left hand, of which such as have the aperture 

 pointed at the two extremities have been formed by 

 Gray into his genus Balea; and of the species which 

 are slightly umbilicated, Leach has formed his genus 

 Bulimulus. De Blainville does not, however, admit 

 of sufficient reason to separate them, and consequently 

 merely forms a subdivision of them ; his arrangement 

 now stands in a well defined and simple order as fol- 

 lows : the first, oval and of the ordinary form, as in 

 the B. hcemastomus ; secondly, the ventricose or bel- 

 lied species, B. ventricosus ; thirdly, such as are turri- 

 culated, as in the B. calcarcus ; fourthly, B. citrinut 

 {Balea of Gray), nearly all the species of which are 

 heterostrophe or left-handed ; and lastly, such as are 

 slightly umbilicated, forming Leach's Bulimulus, the 

 type of which is B. trifasciatus. 



These molluscs constitute a genus very generally 

 found in almost every part of the world, from the 

 torrid zone to the frigid regions ; in the former, as 

 with every other species of molluscs, they are larger 

 and more beautifully coloured, and among them will 

 be found the lemon, amber, and sea-green colours, so 

 rarely found as a pigment in other testaceous shells, 

 if we except some species of the helix, their imme- 

 diate congenors. They are more commonly found in 

 islands, or on the margins of the sea, than in the in- 

 terior of the land ; and as far as their habits arc known, 

 the animal perfectly resembles the common snail. 



Lamarck enumerated fifty-four recent species, but 

 from the present arrangement the number is more 

 limited ; of the fossil species about forty have been 

 described. De Blainville places this genus in his 

 second class Paracephalophora, first order Siphono- 

 branchiata, and the family Limacinea, or Helix of 

 Linna3us. 



The derivation, given by a modern writer, of buli- 

 mus from voracious, for the reason above given, now 

 falls to the ground, and none has been offered for 

 bulinus. 



BULLA (Lamarck, Cuvier). This genus of mol- 

 luscs, as constituted by Linnaeus, included a great 

 variety of the most opposite genera, which by 

 Lamarck and other modern naturalists have been 

 removed from it, and separately classed in natural 

 groups, under the names of Bullcca, Ovula, Achatina, 

 Physa, Tercbellum, and some are comprised in the 

 genera Pyrula and Bulinus. The great confusion 

 that formerly existed in consequence of the manifest 

 incongruity of blending together marine, freshwater, 

 and land shells is now obviated, and a clearly defined 

 and natural association of species formed, each pos- 

 sessing characters easily distinguishable, and Bulla 

 may now be described with one consistent family 

 character, perfectly unlike all other shells with which 

 it was intermingled by Linnaeus. This mollusc is an 

 univalve, of an oval form, more or less globose, as it 

 were rolled up loosely, having no columella, and 

 being without a visible spire in most of the species ; 

 the large external whorl elevated above the others, 

 giving an umbilicated appearance to the upper part of 

 the shell ; the aperture is open the whole length of 

 the shell, and usually wider at the base ; the outer 



