BOS 



EOT 



are made of their skins. Their tails are 

 esteemed throughout the East, as far as 

 luxury and parade have any influence on 

 the manners of the people. In India no man 

 of fashion ever goes out, or sits in form 

 at home, without two chowrabadars, or 

 brushers, attending him, each furnished 

 with one of these tails mounted on silver 

 or ivory handles, to brush away the flics. 

 The Chinese dye them of a beautiful red, 

 and wear them as tufts to their summer 

 bonnets. The yak is the most fearful of 

 animals, and very swift ; but when chased 

 by men or dogs, and finding if self nearly 

 overtaken, it will face its pursuers, and 

 hide its hind parts in some bush, and wait 

 for tht-m ; imagining that if it could con- 

 ceal its tail, which was the object they 

 were in search of, it would escape unhurt. 



Bos coffer, or Cape ox, (having the 

 horns very broad at the base, then spread- 

 ing downwards, next upwards, and at the 

 tips curving inwards ;) inhabits the inte- 

 rier parts of Africa, north of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and is greatly superior in 

 size to the largest English ox. It is of a 

 very strong and masculine form, with a 

 fierce and malevolent aspect. Its colour 

 is a deep cinereous brown ; the hair on 

 the body is rather short, but that on the 

 head and breast very long, coarse, and 

 black, hanging down the dew-lap, like 

 that of a bison ; from the hind part of the 

 head to the midde of the back is also a 

 loose black mane ; the tail nearly naked 

 at the base ; the remainder being covered 

 with long loose hair. These animals are 

 found in large herds, in the desert parts 

 beyond the Cape ; and, if met in the nar- 

 row parts of woods, are extremely dan- 

 gerous, rushing suddenly on the travel- 

 ler, goring and trampling both man and 

 horse under foot. It is also said, that 

 they will often strip ofF the skin of such 

 animals as they have killed, by licking 

 them with their rough tongues, as record- 

 ed by some of the ancient authors of the 

 bison. 



BOSCIA, in botany, a genus of the Te- 

 trandria Trigynia class and order, Calyx 

 four-toothed ; corolla four petalled ; cap- 

 sule four-celled. One species, found at 

 the Cape. 



BOSEA, in botany, from Bose, a sena- 

 tor of Leipsic, a genus of the Pentandria 

 Digynia class and order. Essential cha- 

 racter : calyx five- leaved ; corolla none ; 

 berry one-seeded. There is but one spe- 

 cies, viz. B. yervamora, golden rod tree, 

 is a strong woody shrub, with a stem as 

 large as a man's leg, the branches come 

 out very irregularly, and make considera- 



ble shoots in summer ; these branches 

 retain their leaves till spring, when they 

 fall off, and new leaves are produced 

 soon after. It is a native of the Canary 

 islands, and is also found in some of the 

 West India islands. 



BOSSI/EA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Diadelphia Decandria: calyx two-lipped, 

 the upper lip inversely heart shaped; 

 banner with two glands at the base ; keel 

 of two petals : legume pedicelled, com- 

 pressed, many-seeded. One species, a 

 native of New Holland. 



BOSTR1CHUS, in natural history, a ge- 

 nus of insects of the order Coleoptera : 

 antennae clavate, the club solid ; thorax 

 convex, slightly margined ; head inflect- 

 ed and hid under the thorax. There are 

 about thirty species. They are a very fer- 

 tile and voracious tribe, and destructive 

 to woods, making those deep irregular 

 channels, so often observable in the bark 

 and wood of trees. They are found chief- 

 ly in Europe and America. 



BOTANY, is that science which teach- 

 es a knowledge of the vegetable king- 

 dom, as its name, derived from /Sarocvj;, 

 an herb or grass, expresses. This \v ord 

 may be easily traced to its primative fiou, 

 or po<rx.a, to feed, and since plants have 

 ever been regarded as the food of a large 

 portion of animals, the aptness of its deri- 

 vation is apparent. This study, in its 

 most limited sense, includes the practical 

 discrimination, methodical arrangement, 

 and systematical nomenclature of vegeta- 

 bles : while, in a more enlarged view, it 

 comprises the anatomy and functions of 

 their several parts, together with the va- 

 rious qualities and uses which render 

 them serviceable either to mankind or the 

 brute creation. In this respect botany 

 may be considered as a vast and almost 

 boundless study ; nor is the merely sys- 

 tematical department of botany or natural 

 history in general, when cultivated on 

 philosophical principles, inferior to any 

 other science, in extent or utility, as an 

 exercise for the discriminative powers of 

 the mind. The necessity of a regular me- 

 thod of classification, which is calculated 

 to arrange and dispose the whole vegeta- 

 ble kingdom, cannot be doubted, since 

 the most experienced and intelligent bo- 

 tanists of the present day have scarcely 

 been able to reckon, within ten thou- 

 sand, how many species of plants there 

 may be in the world. 



An attention to the vegetables, on all 

 sides spread around him, must have been 

 one of the earliest occupations of man in 

 a state of nature; and this attention was 



