BRA 



[59] 



BRA 



According to. Mr. Whiteway and 

 Mr. Kingston, the Bovey deposit 

 consists chiefly of five clay beds, 

 and as many of gravel, the latter 

 varying from 100 to 50 feet in 

 width. The clay beds are described 

 as undulating, like the waves of 

 the sea; and it is stated that 

 beneath the four more western 

 beds the Bovey-coal is found." 



BOT/LDEE. I Large fragments, or roun- 



BO'WLDEE. ) ded masses of any rock 

 found lying on the surface, or, 

 sometimes, imbedded in soil, and 

 differing from the rocks where they 

 are found ; these fragments, or 

 outlying boulders, are of no deter- 

 minate size, they are supposed to 

 have been transported by the force 

 of water, and are occasionally 

 found at very great distances from 

 their parent rocks. The mass of 

 rock on which is placed the statue 

 of Peter the Great at St. Peters- 

 burgh, is a detached block of 

 granite, or a boulder, forty-two 

 feet in length, twenty-seven feet 

 broad, and twenty-one feet high, 

 and was removed from the Gulf of 

 Finland. 



The Hon. Fox Strangways says 

 " the celebrated block out of which 

 the pedestal which supports the 

 statue of Peter the Great is cut was 

 a rolled boulder of the red Finland 

 granite. It was not brought, as 

 has been asserted, from Siberia, 

 nor, by human means at least, 

 from Finland : but was found, 

 among many others of smaller size, 

 in a bog between Petersburg and 

 Cesterbeck. It was diminished 

 two thirds, before placing the 

 statue on it." 



BEACHELY'TBA. A family of coleop- 

 terous insects, having but one 

 palpus to the maxillaB. It com- 

 prises only one genus, namely 

 Staphylinus. 



BEA'CTEA. (bractea, Lat.) In botany, 

 a leafy appendage to the flower or 

 stalk, differing from the other 



leaves of the plant in form or 

 colour ; the floral leaf. Bracteas 

 vary greatly in appearance ; most 

 commonly they are green and her- 

 baceous. The leaf, in the axilla of 

 which a flower-bud is produced, is 

 called a bractea. The most re- 

 markable sort of bractea is that 

 called spathe ; the spathe or bractea 

 of many flowers is membranous. 

 "When two or more bracteae, instead 

 of appearing singly on the principal 

 flower- stalk, are opposite, or ver- 

 ticillate, they form an involucrum. 



BEA'CHIAL. (from brachium, an arm, 

 Lat. Irachial, Fr. del braccio, It.) 

 Belonging to the arm. 



BEA'CHIATE. (brachiatm, Lat.) Four- 

 ranked; applied to stems, when 

 they divide and spread in four 

 directions, crossing each other. 



BEANCHI'FEEA. In the conchological 

 system of De Blainville, we find 

 branchifera placed in the order 

 Cervicobranchiata, and it comprises 

 three genera, namely, Fissurella, 

 Emarginula, and Parmophorus. 



BBACHTIO'PODA. (from ftpa^ltav, an 

 arm, and?*)?, a foot, Gr.) Animals 

 having arms instead of feet. The 

 brachiopoda are all bivalves. Bra- 

 chiopoda forms the first order of 

 the class Molluscoidea. 



BEACHIO'PODOUS. Having arms in 

 the place of feet and legs; be- 

 longing to the class Brachiopoda. 



BEACKLESHAM BEDS. These beds 

 constitute a portion of the Bagshot 

 series, lying between the Lower 

 Bagshot and the Barton Clay. 

 They take their name from Brackle- 

 sham in Sussex, but are best seen 

 in the Isle of Wight : their thick- 

 ness in some places is about 110 

 feet. 



BEADFOBD CLAY. A blue unctuous 

 clay, occurring at Bradford, a 

 member of the Cornbrash group; 

 it is full of Apiocrinites Parkinsoni. 



BBADY'PODA. Slow-moving animals, 

 with their bodies generally covered 

 by a hard crust. Some want the 



