BED 



[51 ] 



BEL 



class Amphibia, comprising the 

 frog, toad, &c. 



BA'TRACHITE. (from /3aT/>axeos, Gr. 

 batrachites, Lat.) A fossil of the 

 colour of a frog ; a fossil frog ; a 

 fossil resembling a frog, either in 

 form or colour. 



Under the name of batrachite or 

 bufonite, are found figured, in the 

 works of some ory otologists, a great 

 number of fossil bodies, more or 

 less rounded and shining, which 

 are evidently portions of the teeth, 

 or deretary palates, of fishes. The 

 above names were given because it 

 was imagined that they had been 

 engendered in the heads of toads or 

 frogs. See Bufonite. 



BEAK. 



1. In conchology, the continuation 

 of the body of univalves in which 

 the canal is situate. 



2. In ornithology, the bill, or horny 

 mouth of a bird. 



3. In botany, applied to an elonga- 

 tion of the seed-vessel; proceeding 

 also from the permanent style; also 

 to naked seeds. 



B'EAR. The name given for a block 

 of sandstone, which, having been 

 exposed to an intense heat in the 

 furnace, has become converted into 

 a substance resembling quartz rock. 



BEABD. (from larla, Lat. barle, Pr. 

 larla, It.) 



1. In botany, a bristle-shaped pro- 

 jection, growing out from the 

 glume or chaff, in corn and grasses; 

 called also the awn. 



2. In conchology, the process by 

 which some univalves adhere to 

 rocks, &c. 



BED. A stratum of considerable 

 thickness. It is desirable that the 

 geological student should draw a 

 distinct line between the words 

 bed and stratum. Whenever a 

 layer, or stratum, is of the thick- 

 ness of two yards or more, it should 

 be denominated a bed, but other- 

 wise a stratum. There are some- 

 times found many distinct strata in 



the thickness of an inch; to de- 

 nominate these as beds would be 

 absurd. Let it therefore be kept 

 in mind that the words bed and 

 stratum are not synonymous. By 

 a led there should be understood a 

 series of layers, or a succession of 

 deposits of earthy matter so con- 

 tinuously formed that the whole 

 adhere more or less firmly together. 



BE'ETLE. A coleopterous insect, the 

 scarabaeus of Linnaeus. Eemains 

 of beetles have been found in the 

 oolite : wing covers of beetles occur 

 in the shale of the Danby coal-pits, 

 in the eastern moorlands of York- 

 shire. 



BE'ETLE. To jut out; to hang over: 

 thus rocks are said to beetle. 



BE'ETLE-STONE. A name given to 

 coprolites, from their falsely im- 

 agined insect origin. 



BEHE'MOTH. A huge animal spoken 

 of in the Scripture, supposed by 

 some to mean the elephant, by 

 others the ox, and by Bochart the 

 hippopotamus. 



BE'LEMNITE. (from /Se'Xe/^oi/, Gr. a 

 dart.) Belemnite, thunderstone, 

 or arrow-head. An extinct genus 

 of chambered molluscous aminals, 

 having a straight tapering shell. 

 Belemnites are found in the second- 

 ary formation only, the lowest 

 stratum containing their remains 

 being the muschel-kalk, and the 

 highest the upper chalk of Maest- 

 richt. M. Be Blainville has given 

 a list of ninety-one authors, from 

 Theophrastus downwards, who have 

 written on the subject of belern- 

 nites. The most intelligent of 

 these agree in supposing these 

 bodies to have been formed by 

 cephalopods allied to the modern 

 sepia. That fossil which is called 

 a belemnite was a compound in- 

 ternal shell, made up of three 

 essential parts, which are rarely 

 found together in perfect preserva- 

 tion. The belemnite is one of the 

 most common fossils of the chalk,* 



