BIL 



BIR 



and lenta (black or cherry), are all 

 fine trees, especially the red, the tim- 

 ber of which is much used for cabi- 

 net purposes ; and the black or cher- 

 ry, which has the colour of mahog- 

 any, and is both used here and ex- 

 ported to Europe. B. papijracea, or 

 paper birch, yielded the bark for the 

 canoes of the Indians. The wood of 

 all is durable, and less afTected by 

 changes of temperature than most 

 timbers. The juice of the European 

 B. alba is sweet and easily ferment- 

 ed ; it forms their birch wine. Va- 

 rious parts of the plant are ])ut to a 

 variety of economical uses ; the bark 

 forms paper, vessels, &c. ; the twigs, 

 brooms and rods, while the leaves 

 are considered good fodder. 



BEVEL. An instrument to take 

 angles. 



BEVEL GEER. In mechanics, 

 a species of wheel- work, in which the 

 axles of two Avheels working into 

 each other arc neither parallel nor 

 perpendicular, but inclined to one an- 

 other in a certain angle. Wheels of 

 this kind are also called conical, be- 

 cause their teeth may be regarded as 

 cut in the frustum of a cone. 



BI. From his, twice, a common 

 prefix to words meaning two, or 

 twice, as bi-partite, bin-oxide. 



BIBULOUS. Absorbent. In chem- 

 istry, blotting paper is often termed 

 bibulous paper. 



BIENNIAL. This term is usual- 

 ly applied to plants which grow one 

 year and flower the next, after which 

 they perish. Many biennials, if sown 

 early in the spring, will flower in au- 

 tumn and then perish, thus actually 

 becoming annuals. 



BIESTINGS. The first milk after 

 calving. 



BIFURCATE. Two-pronged, or 

 forked. 



BIGNONIAS. The trumpet flow- 

 ers. Btgnonia radtcans, and other 

 shrubby climbing plants, belong to 

 this handsome genus. 



BIGG. A wmter barley. 



BIIvII. Aconitum ferox. A very } 

 poisonous Eastern monkhood. 



BILABIATE. Two-lipped, or pe- | 

 tailed, applied to flowers, J 



^ BILBERRY. Whortleberry. 



BILE. The secretion of the liver. 

 It is intended, according to Liebig, 

 to prepare certain portions of matter 

 to furnish fuel for the maintenance 

 of the animal heat ; any interruption 

 in its production is attended with 

 great lassitude, sickness, fever, and 

 yellowness of the eyes and skin. 

 Moist, marshy places, and food rich 

 in oil, as butter and fat, produce bil- 

 ious attacks. Calomel is the best 

 medicine in these cases, 10 grains at 

 first, and more if it does not quickly 

 relieve. Fall and spring are the sea- 

 sons most obnoxious to bilious at- 

 tacks in new countries. Sometimes 

 biliary calculi or stones are form- 

 ed. 



The composition of the bile is very 

 complex, according to the analyses of 

 some physiologists. Liebig, howev- 

 er, regards it as a natural soap, near- 

 ly consisting of choleate of soda. 



BILL. A hatchet with a curved 

 point. 



BILLET. A small log or block of 

 wood. 



BIN. A box for corn, oats, &c. 



BIND- WEED. A common name 

 for most climbing plants, but espe- 

 cially directed to the convolvulaceous 

 species. 



BINES. Running stems. 



BIOCELLATE. When an insect's 

 wing is marked with two eye-like 

 dots. 



BIPINNATE. Leaves that are 

 doubly pinnate ; in which the second- 

 ary stalks or petals are pinnated. 



BIRCI-I. See Bctvla. 



BIRD. The preservation of birds 

 as a means of destroying insects has 

 lately attracted some attention. It 

 is proposed to destroy the hawk tribe 

 only, leaving crows, ravens, sparrows, 

 wrens, bluebirds, and all others ; for, 

 although many of these occasionally 

 take seed and injure fruit, they, for 

 the most part, live on insects and 

 small vermin, and the fanner is much 

 more assisted by their labours than 

 injured by their depredations. Mr. 

 Swainson remarks that whereas nu- 

 merous crops are devastated by in- 

 sects, no one has ever heard of such 



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