AND GENERAL HORTICULTURE. 



53 



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six hundred species. Myosotis, Borago, 

 Cynoglossum, Lithospermum, Cerinthe, Symphy- 

 tum, and Anchusa, are examples of this 

 order. 



Bora'go. Borage. Altered from cor, heart, and 

 ago, to affect ; referring to the cordial quali- 

 ities of the. herbs. Nat. Ord. Boraginacece. 



Hardy annual and perennial herbs, common 

 throughout Europe. The leaves of B. officinalis 

 are sometimes used in salads or boiled as 

 spinach. The spikes of flowers are aromatic, 

 and sometimes used in cooling drinks. All 

 the species are easily cultivated and are admir- 

 ably adapted for naturalizing in dry, stony 

 places. They also afford excellent food for 

 bees during the whole season. 



Bora'ssus. Palmyra Palm. Linnseus applied 

 this name to the spathe of the date-palm. Nat. 

 Ord. Palmacce. 



A genus of magnificent Palms, consisting of 

 two species only, which have a wide geo- 

 graphical distribution, ranging from the 

 north-eastern parts of Arabia, through the 

 Indian Ocean, and the southern parts of 

 Hindostan, to the Bay of Bengal. The 

 number of Palmyras in the Jaffua peninsula 

 and adjacent islands alone has been estimated 

 at nearly six million and a half, being at the 

 rate of thirty-two trees for each of the popu- 

 lation. The utility of the plant is commensu- 

 rate with its extended dispersion, a providen- 

 tial arrangement in the economy of nature, of 

 which the food-plants afford many instructive 

 examples. This plant is believed to yield one- 

 fourth part of the food of about 250,000 in- 

 habitants of the northern provinces of Ceylon, 

 while it forms the chief support of six or 

 seven millions of the people of India and other 

 parts of Asia ; thus, remarks Seeman in his 

 History of Palms, " proving itself one of 

 the most important plants on earth, rival- 

 ing the date-tree, and ranking only below 

 the cocoa-nut palm in usefulness." The 

 fronds give shelter to scores of animals by 

 night and day, besides affording a refreshing 

 supply of moisture, the grooves of the petioles 

 and the construction of the leaves being 

 peculiarly suitable for conveying and retain- 

 ing rain. The same causes attract orchids 

 and other epiphytes, and ferns, which find 

 their conditions of growth on the stem ; and 

 various species of the fig, including the true 

 banyan-tree, are found in living embrace with 

 the Palmyra. In the Botanic Garden at 

 Calcutta a banyan sprang from the crown of a 

 palm where the seed had been deposited by a 

 bird, and, sending its roots down to the earth 

 through the palm-stem, destroyed and replaced 

 it. But in the region of the Palmyra, the 

 banyan often becomes the foster-mother of 

 that beautiful and serviceable plant. One of 

 the largest banyans of Ceylon, the resort of 

 pleasure parties from Jaffua, has two or three 

 Palmyras growing in it, the united trees cover- 

 ing one and one-twelfth acres of ground. The 

 cocoa palm is celebrated for its 365 uses ; a 

 poem in the Tamil language extols the Palmyra 

 for 800 purposes to which it can be applied, 

 without exhausting the catalogue. The roots 

 yield a medicine ; the young plants are used 

 lor food, prepared in various ways ; the wood 

 serves innumerable purposes, in building and 

 furnishing houses, and for the manufacture of 

 umbrella handles, walking-canes, fancy boxes, 



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and for hundreds of other small articles; 

 fields are fenced with the mid-rib of its leaves, 

 the decayed .leaves furnish good manure for 

 the soil ; mats are made of the leaves, and are 

 used instead of carpets on the floors, for 

 ceilings, for drying coffee upon ; baskets, bags, 

 hats, caps, fans, in short, everything manu- 

 factured of wood or straw, is also produced 

 from some part or parts of this palm. 

 The plants reach maturity about the twelfth 

 or fifteenth year. Then they yield a toddy, 

 "a beverage almost as famous for its use 

 as for its abuse." The fruit of this palm 

 is sometimes eaten raw, but more generally 

 roasted, and is in great repute by the natives, 

 who assemble together under the shade of 

 a tree, light a fire, squat around it, sucking 

 the pulp out of the fibres of the roasted 

 fruits, tearing them asunder with nails 

 and teeth in the most approved style, 

 and presenting a truly oriental spectacle 

 of gustative enjoyment. A full grown Palmyra 

 is from sixty to seventy feet high : the trunk 

 at the bottom is about five and a half feet, and 

 at the top, two and a half feet in circumference. 



Borders. Flower. A flower-border is generally 

 a continuous bed of greater length than width, 

 skirting a shrubbery or fence, and containing 

 plants of a mixed character. It should be 

 thoroughly drained, well manured, and raised 

 slightly above the surrounding level. No 

 rules can be laid down as to the arrangement 

 of the plants, which of course depends on indi- 

 vidual taste ; all formal lines, however, should 

 be avoided, the taller plants either singly or 

 in groups forming the back-ground, with the 

 dwarfer subjects in front. As the object 

 should be to obtain a continuous succession of 

 bloom, the best results will be obtained when 

 the border is made up mainly, of herbaceous 

 perennials as permanent occupants, with a 

 liberal admixture of hardy spring-blooming 

 bulbs, such as Narcissus, Snow-drops, Tulips, 

 Scillas, etc., assisted by quantities of summer 

 blooming plants, Lantanas, Geraniums, 

 Dahlias, Heliotrope, etc. Many sorts of hardy 

 annuals are useful to fill up vacant places, and 

 assist largely to keep up a succession of bloom 

 till frost comes. See Herbaceous Plants. 



Borbo'nia. A genus of ornamental green- 

 house evergreen shrubs belonging to the pea- 

 flowered section of Leguminosce, and num- 

 bering some thirteen species, all natives of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The flowers are gener- 

 ally yellow, borne in terminal heads. They 

 require cool green-house treatment and are 

 propagated by cuttings. 



Borecole. Kale. Brassica oleracea fiiribriata. 

 The chief characteristic of the Borecoles or 

 Kales consists in their not producing heads 

 like the Cabbage, or eatable flowers like the 

 Cauliflower or Broccoli, and by their beauti- 

 fully cut and curled leaves, which are of a 

 green or purple color, or variegated with 

 red, green, or yellow. Several of the sub- 

 varieties are known in our markets, and ex- 

 tensively grown by market gardeners, the 

 most popular being the dwarf green curled 

 Scotch, the brown or purple German curled ; 

 and for early spring use, the Siberian Kale or 

 "Sprouts." The Borecole is a native of the 

 British coasts and the north of Europe. The 

 garden varieties are not many removes from 

 the species. 



