BU TO ME IE BUTTERFLY. 



60 1 



resemblance to each other in this respect, though 

 they differ a good deal in geographical position, in 

 the size of the individuals, and in the flavour of their 

 flesh. 



BUTOME^E. The flowering-rush tribe. A natural 

 order of monocotyledonous plants, containing two 

 genera and five or six known species. The genera 

 included under this order are by many authors referred 

 to the Alismaceae, to which they are closely allied, 

 but differ in the mode in which their seeds are 

 attached. 



The characters of the order are, calyx having three 

 divisions, which are usually herbaceous ; petals three, 

 coloured ; stamens, definite or indefinite, hypogynous ; 

 ovaries varying from three to six or more, more or 

 less free o"r united ; follicles many seeded, distinct 

 and beaked, or united into one mass ; seeds very 

 minute, attached to the whole inner surface of the 

 pericarp by a sort of vascular network ; no albumen. 



The plants belonging to this order are aquatic, 

 having cellular leaves furnished with parallel veins 

 and handsome umbellate flowers of a yellow or, 

 purple colour. They are natives of the marshes of 

 Europe, South America and the East Indies. 



The genera of the order are Butomus, Limnocharis, 

 and Hydrocleys. 



Butomus umhellatits, common flowering rush, is 

 frequent in the ditches and ponds of England and 

 Ireland, and grows in Duddingstone Loch, near Edin- 

 burgh, and the Loch of Clunie in Scotland. It is 

 highly ornamental, and is interesting as being the 

 onlv British plant in the ninth class Enneandria, of 

 the Linnaean system. Another species, Butomus 

 latifitlius is found in Nepal. These plants are said 

 to possess acrid properties. 



Limnocharis pltunieri is found in the marshes of 

 Brazil. Its flowers are yellow, and its leaves have a 

 singular hole at their apex, which seems to be intended 

 as an outlet for the moisture which constantly distils 

 from the plant. A milky juice is yielded in great 

 abundance by this plant. 



BUTOMUS ( Linnaeus). So called from bous and 

 temno, cropped or cut by oxen. A genus of two 



species, one British, the other from Nepal. Class 

 and order Enneandria Hexagynia, and natural order 

 Butomece. Generic character: calyx none; corolla 

 six-petalled, three outmost smaller, withering ; stigma 

 abrupt ; capsules six, oblong, taper, each one-celled ; 

 seeds many. This is the flowering rush of our rivers, 



and is an elegant plant, having its flowers in an 

 umbel four or more inches in diameter ; each flower is 

 about an inch broad, of a fine rose or purplish white 

 colour. Professor Lindley thinks it the most beau- 

 tiful of all our native plants ; adding that the number 

 hree is evidently predominant in the fructification : 

 the corolla being doubly tripetalous, the stamens 

 thrice three, the seed-vessels six, in a hexagonal form, 

 and the involucre three-leaved. The quaint descrip- 

 tion of old Gerard, in his Herbal, deserves to be 

 for the hundredth time reiterated. " The water- 

 ladiole, or grassie-rush," says he, " is of all others 

 the fairest and most pleasant to behold, and serveth 

 very well for the decking and trimming up of houses, 

 because of the beautie and braverie thereof." The 

 annexed cut gives an idea of the umbel of flowers. 



BUTTER BUR is the Tussilago (good for a 

 cough) petasites of English botany. It is called 

 petasites, specifically, because of its very broad leaves 

 affording a shelter from rain to poultry and other 

 small animals. It is called butter bur in allusion to 

 a former application, and pestilent wort, from its 

 supposed efficacy in the plague. The plant is syn- 

 genesious, and belongs to the order Composite. 



BUTTER CUP is the Ranunculus (frog-wort) 

 bulbosus of Willdenow. It is the plant which gilds 

 our meadows with its glossy yellow flowers in the 

 months of May and June. Like most of its congeners 

 it possesses the property of inflaming and blistering 

 the skin ; hence the roots have been applied for that 

 purpose, particularly to the joints, in cases of gout. 

 Besides the name butter-cup, it is also called butter- 

 flower, king's-cups and crow-foot j and it is " the 

 cuckoo-buds of yellow hue " of Shakspeare. 



BUTTERFLY. The ordinary English name of 

 a very extensive * group of insects belonging to the 

 order Lepidoptera, and corresponding with the great 

 division Diurna of Latreille, or the Linnaean genus 

 Papilio. 



Who has not been struck with the elegance and 

 beauty of these delicate insects, 



" Which flutter round the jasmine stems 

 Like winged flowers or flying gems " > 



MOORK'S LALI.A ROOKH. 



Who has not watched them hovering and fluttering 

 over the flowers which they more than rivalled in 

 splendour of colour, or seen them at length resting 

 with a touch so light as not to appear to be there? 



' Proles arbusti, papilio ut forem, 

 Violas et lilia et rosas halens, 

 Erraticus usque tie flore ad florem 

 Quae pulchra, qua? suavia sunt, osculans.'' 



Archdeacon Wrttngfiu/n's elfffunt Translation of 

 the Song " I'd be a. Butterfly." 



Who has not observed them, when at last reposing 

 on the bosom of a flower, opening and shutting their 

 beautiful wings to the summer's sun, alternately erect- 

 ing and depressing their long and slender antennas, 

 which, by a fanciful idea, have been generally termed 

 horns. 



* The number of species of butterflies is far greater than 

 would be supposed. Latreille has described not less than isui 

 species in the Encyclopedic Mdthodique; of this number about 

 2:17 are natives of Europe, the rest are extra European. If, how- 

 ever, it is considered that out of Europe the entomological trea- 

 sures of the globe are but very incompletely known, and sup- 

 posing that even one-third of the diurnal lepidoptera were 

 unknown to Latreille, the number is raised to about 2500, of 

 which number 260, or one ninth part, are inhabitants of Europe. 



