BRA 



158 



BRA 



they called Brachma and Brama, and pre- 

 tended to imitate the life of the patri- 

 arch by living in deserts. 



BRA'CHYCATALEPTIC, ^ot^vs, short, and 

 xatTothrrrnxos, deficient. In Greek and 

 Latin poetry, a verse wanting two sylla- 

 bles to complete its length. 



BRACHYG'RAPHY, stenography, 

 short, and y$a.$ca, to write. 



BRACHYpo'DicM,the/atee brome-grass, a 

 genus of plants. Triandria liigiinia. 

 Earned from (3goc.%l>;, short, and vrov;, a 

 foot, from the sessile, or nearly sessile, 

 spikelets, which, with the terminal awn, 

 distinguish this genus from Bromtis, where 

 tjie two British plants of this genus had 

 been placed. 



BRACHYP'TER^:, a family of birds of the 

 Palmipede order, having the legs placed 

 farther back than in any other birds, 

 which renders walking painful to them ; 

 and having but feeble powers of flight, 

 which renders them almost exclusively 

 attached to the surface of the water. The 

 divers, auks, and penguins are examples. 

 The name is from Pexi>s, short, and 

 s-ngoK, a wing. 



BRACHYP'TEROUS, short-winged, be- 

 longing to the Brachyptera family of birds. 



BRACHY'STOCHRONE, /3ga%uj, short, and 

 gve>> time. The name given by John 

 Berndulli to the curve which possesses 

 this property, that a body setting out 

 from a given point, and impelled merely 

 by the force of gravity, will arrive at 

 another point in a shorter time by mov- 

 ing in this curve, than if it followed any 

 other direction. It was first proposed by 

 Bernoulli as a challenge to other mathe- 

 maticians in 1696. The brachystochrone, 

 or curve of quickest descent, as it is 

 otherwise termed, is found to be the com- 

 mon cycloid. 



BRACHYTJ'RA, a family of crustaceans, 

 placed by Cuvier in the order Decapocia, 

 and constituting the genus Cancer, Lin. 

 Name from /S^a^y? , short, and ov^a,, a 

 tail, the tail being shorter than the trunk, 

 in which the Brachyura differ from the 

 Macroura. 



BRAC'TEA, a Latin word meaning a leaf 

 of gold or other metal, and used in bo- 

 tany to denote a little leaf-like appendage 

 in some flowers, lying under or inter- 

 spersed in the flower, but generally differ- 

 ent in colour from the true leaves of the 

 plant. It is otherwise called a floral leaf. 

 The term is sometimes anglicised, and 

 written bract. 



BRAC'TEATE, furnished with bracteae, 

 bracted. 



BHAC'TEATES, thin coins of gold or sil- 

 ver, and latterly of copper, with irregu- 

 lar figures stamped upon one surface, so 

 that the impression is raised upon one 



side and depressed on the other. They 

 were circulated in great quantities under 

 Otho I. of Germany. The real names at 

 the time they were in circulation were, 

 denarius, moneta, obohis, panniiiyus. 



BRAD, a slender sort of nail, used in 

 joinery, having no spreading head, as 

 other nails have, but a small projection 

 on one side. Of this sort are joiners' liradt, 

 used for hard wainscots , batten-brads, for 

 soft wainscots ; bill -brads, or quarter brads, 

 used in floors. When brads are u<x-d. it 

 is customary to drive them beneath the 

 surface of the wood with a punch and 

 hammer, and till up the hole with putty, 

 that the nailing may not be visible. The 

 term is from Sax. btleban, to join, knit. 



BRAD-AWL, that is, a broad-awl. (See 

 AWL.) This awl is used chiefly for piercing 

 holes for brads. 



BHADYP'DD.V, an order of slow-moving 

 animals of class Mammalia, and including 

 the Bradypus (sloth), Mermecophaga (ant- 

 eaters;, Mauls (scaly-lizard or bangolin), 

 Dasypus (armadillo), Ornithorhynchus 

 (duck-bill). Name from pa a $u;, slow, and 

 trouf, foot. The Bradypoda, Lin. are 

 mostly comprehended among the Eden- 

 tata, Cuv. 



BRAD'YPCS, the sloth. An American 

 genus of animals of the order Bradypoda 

 and class Mammalia. Named from fyotdls, 

 slow, and jra-Jj, a foot. They are placed 

 by Cuvier in his order Edentata and divi- 

 sion tardigrada. There are several species, 

 of which the al (B. Mdactylus, Lin.) is 

 the most celebrated; F. Cuvier applies 

 the name bradypus to those species only 

 which have two nails to the fore-feet : the 

 Cholcepus, Illig., of which there is only 

 one species known, the unau (B. didac- 

 tylus, Lin.), larger than the ai. 



BRAH'MANS, the highest of the four 

 castes of Hindoos : they form the learned 

 or sacerdotal class. Their chief privileges 

 are, reading the' Vedas or sacred writings, 

 instituting sacrifices, imparting religious 

 instruction, asking alms, and exemption 

 from capital punishment. 



BRAID, a sort of narrow textile band or 

 tape formed by plaiting (Sax. bpeSan, 

 to plait) several strands together. There 

 must be at least 3 strands, but as many 

 as 29 (and perhaps more) are sometimes 

 employed. Braid, stay-laces, and up- 

 holsterers' cord are worked by means of 

 a machine of very ingenious construc- 

 tion, called the braiding-machine or frame. 



BRAIK, ) An instrument used in flax- 



BRAKE. | dressing, to brake (break) the 

 wood or boon of the stems, and loosen it 

 from the harl. The bott-hammer (q. v.) 

 is generally employed on the Continent 

 instead of the brake, and the brake- 

 machine has in Britain superseded the 



