BETEL OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 47 



rooted, with alternate, entire, lobed, palmate or digitate leaves, 

 their base always oblique-cordate, smooth or villose, often red or 

 blotched, of various colours; flowers unisexual, red or white, 

 showy. Natives chiefly of tropical America and the East and 

 West Indies. They possess no special properties, but of late 

 years they have been patronised as showy flowering plants ; and 

 as they readily hybridise, fine varieties have been raised, 

 especially from the tuberous -rooted sorts, which now form a 

 conspicuous feature at horticultural exhibitions. In 1864 the 

 Kew collection consisted of 18 varieties. 



Belladonna. {See Nightshade.) 



Belladonna Lily. {See Amaryllis.) 



Belote. {See Oak.) 



Bengal Quince. {See Bael Tree.) 



Ben Oil. {See Horse-radish Tree.) 



Bent Grass. {See Fiorin Grass.) 



Benzoin, a gum-resin obtained from Styrax Benzoin, a tree 

 of the Styrax family (Styracese), native of Sumatra and other 

 Malayan islands. Gum Benzoin is obtained by incisions made 

 in the bark. This is a highly valuable perfume, and is used in 

 the composition of incense, as well as in medicine, for pulmonary 

 complaints. S. punctatum, a tree native of Veraguas m Central 

 America, yields a gum which is obtained after the tree is cut 

 down and allowed to remain several years on the ground, when 

 the external part of its wood is removed, and the gum-resin 

 found collected in greater or smaller masses. It is used as 

 frankincense. 



Bergamot, the name of a perfume extracted from the fruit 

 of Citrus Bergamia, a shrub of the Orange family (Aurantiacese), 

 cultivated in France and Italy for its fruit. 



Betel Leaf, or Betel Pepper {Piper hetel), a climbing plant 

 similar in habit of growth to the Black Pepper {Piper nigrum). 

 It is cultivated throughout India, Malayan Peninsula and 

 Islands, for the sake of its leaf, which is chewed with the Betel 

 nut and lime, as above. 



Betel Nut, also called Pmang {Areca Catechii), a native of 



