AND GENERAL HORTICULTURE. 



57 



BRO 



Brodiae'a. Named after J. J. Brodie, a Scotch 

 cryptogamist. Nat. Ord. Liliacecs. 



Very curious little bulbous-rooted plants. 

 B. Californica, with blue and white flowers, is 

 easily cultivated in sandy loam with the con- 

 venience of a green-house or cold frame. 

 Increase is sparingly effected by offsets. Intro- 

 duced in 1843. 



Brome Grass. See Bromus. 



Bromelia'ceee. The Pine-apple family. A 

 natural order, consisting of short-stemmed 

 plants, with rigid, channeled, and often scurfy 

 and spiny leaves and showy flowers. They 

 are natives of the American continent and 

 islands, whence they have been distributed to 

 Africa and the East Indies. Ananassa saliva, 

 the Pine-apple or Ananas, is one of the best 

 known and most delicious of this or any other 

 order. The fruit is composed of the pistils 

 and bracts of several flowers united into a 

 succulent mass, and crowned by a series of 

 green leaves. The fibers of the plant are 

 used in manufactures. The Pine-apple is 

 grown under glass very successfully in Europe, 

 but the fine condition in which they are 

 received here from Jamaica and other places, 

 makes their culture under glass here unneces- 

 sary. Some of the Bromeliads grow attached 

 to the branches of trees, and are called Air 

 Plants, the best known here being Tillandsia 

 usneoides, the Tree Beard of South America. 

 Under the name of Florida Moss it is very 

 largely used for decorative purposes. It is 

 also used for stuffing cushions, etc., under 

 the name of Spanish Moss, Black Moss, or 

 Long Moss. There are twenty-eight known 

 genera, and 176 species of this order. Brom- 

 elia, Ananassa, Bilbergia, ^chmea, and Til- 

 landsia, are examples of the order. The 

 bracts of some of the species are exceedingly 

 beautiful. 



Bro'mus. Brome Grass. So called from bro- 

 mos, the Greek name for a wild oat. Nat. Ord. 

 Graminacece. 



A genus of poor, coarse-growing grasses, of 

 little use in agriculture, and of little beauty. 

 This is the pest of the farmer, to which he 

 applies a significant and a justly proper 

 name, Cheat or Chess. However much it may 

 cheat the farmer by crowding out Wheat and 

 Rye, we cannot excuse him for cheating him- 

 self with the absurd delusion, so widely preva- 

 lent, that his Wheat has turned into Chess, 

 from some cause which cannot be explained. 

 The species are annuals, and the seed will 

 remain a long time in the ground, and germi- 

 nate only when the conditions of growth are 

 favorable. It is a native of Europe, though 

 naturalized in many places in this country. 

 B. Schroederi, Rescue Grass, or Australian 

 Prairie Grass, is a valuable forage grass, 

 remarkable for the rapidity of its growth and 

 its productiveness. As soon as the first cut- 

 ting is made a new growth shoots up, and this 

 can be repeated sometimes four or five times 

 during the season, providing it is cut before 

 the seed matures. It thrives in almost any 

 soil, but is better adapted to that which is wet 

 or moist. 



Brongnia'rtia. Named in honor of Brongniart, 

 a French botanist. Nat. Ord. Leguminosce. 



A valuable and rather scarce plant, having 

 flesh-colored flowers. It should be treated as 



BRO 



a green-house shrub, potting it In loam and 

 sand. A native of New Spain, introduced in 

 1627. 



Brook Lime. Veronica Becabunga. 

 American. Veronica Americana,. 



Brook- Mint. Mentha hirsuta. 



Brook Weed or Water Pimpernel. The popu- 

 lar name of Samolus, a common plant in wet 

 or marshy places. 



Broom. A name applied to Cytisus or Sciroth- 

 amnus scoparius, and also to Lygeum Spartum, 

 African Broom is a common name for Aspa- 

 lathus. Butcher's Broom is Ruscus a<raleatus, 

 and is also a common name for Ruscvs. Dyer's 

 Broom is Genista tinctoria. New Zealand 

 Broom is Carmichaelia australis. Rush Broom 

 is a common name for Viminaria; it is also 

 applied to Spartium junceum. Spanish Broom 

 is Spartium junceum. Broom Corn is Sorghum 

 vulgare, the branched panicles of which are 

 made into carpet brooms and clothes brushes. 



Broom Grass. Andropogon smparius. 



Broom Rape. A popular name of the genus 



Orobanche. 

 Broom Weed. Corchorus siliquosus. 



Bro'simum. Bread Nut. From brosimos, good 

 to eat; the fruit being edible. Nat. Ord. 

 Artocarpacece. 



A small genus of tall-growing trees, natives 

 of the West Indies and South America, where 

 they are highly esteemed for the food obtained 

 from them, and for the valuable timber they 

 furnish. B. Alicastrum is the Bread-nut Tree 

 of Jamaica, the fruit of which is about an inch 

 in diameter, and contains a single seed or nut, 

 which is said to form an agreeable and nour- 

 ishing article of food. When boiled or roasted 

 the nuts have the taste of hazel-nuts. Snake- 

 wood or Leopard-wood is the heart-wood of 

 one of the species, B. Aubletti, a native of 

 Trinidad and British Guiana. B. galacloden- 

 dron, which is the celebrated Cow Tree of 

 South America, yields a milk of as good qual- 

 ity as that from the cow. It forms large for- 

 ests on the seacoast of Venezuela, growing 100 

 or more feet high, with a smooth trunk six to 

 eiglrt feet in diameter. Its milk, which is 

 obtained by making incisions in the trunk, so 

 closely resembles the milk of the cow, both in 

 appearance and quality, that it is commonly 

 used as an article of food by the inhabitants 

 of the localities where the tree abounds. 

 Unlike most other vegetable milks, it is per- 

 fectly wholesome, and very nourishing, pos- 

 sessing an agreeable taste, like that of sweet 

 cream, and a balsamic odor ; its only unpleas- 

 ant quality being a slight amount of stickiness. 

 Like animal milk, it quickly forms a yellow, 

 cheesy scum on the surface, and after a fow 

 days turns sour and putrefies. 



Broughto'nia. Named after Mr. Broughton, an 

 English botanist. Nat. Ord. Orchidaceas. 



A small genus of very handsome West 

 Indian Orchids, soraewhab resembling the 

 Lcelia and Cattleya. They commonly grow on 

 bushes in Cuba and Jamaica. The flowers are 

 crimson and produced from the top of the 

 pseudo-bulb during the summer, and are of 

 long duration. They are of easy culture, 

 growing best on blocks of wood, and should 

 have plenty of light and sun. Propagated by 

 division. Introduced in 1824. 



