115 



Cftc Crcastarg af SBntanji. 



[bact 



winged stems, B. microeephala, is used in ' adherent below to the tube of the c 

 Parana fen- curing rheumatism by putting but free at its upper portion, very hairy 



I bushes of it m warm baths. A bitter is ex- I on the exterior, the interior containing- 

 tracted from B. genistilloid.es, which is held 



I in great reputation in Brazil when used 

 with a specific aroma in cases of intermit- 



! tent fever. Horses devour this herb with 

 avidity, and it is further reckoned of great 



! service in curing chronic diseases in that 



I animal. B. Douglasii is remarkable as be- 

 ing found in California, and appearing 

 again in Chili, without being found m any 

 intervening place. [A. A. BJ 



BACHE. A South American name for 

 JIauritia flexuosa, an economical species of 

 palm. 



BACHELOR'S BUTTONS. A garden 

 name for the double-flowered variety of 

 the buttercup, Ranunculus acris. 



BACILLARIA. A genus of diatomace- 

 ous Alga? consisting of a single species, 

 which occurs on our coasts, known by its 

 linear rectangular articulations, which are 

 at first joined by the longer sides into a 

 straight tabular series, and then slip over 

 each other so as to make oblique series. 

 The articulations or frustrates, individu- 

 ally, are not so beautiful in respect of 

 structure as many others of the arroup ; the 

 chief point of interest consisting in the 

 curious manner in which the articulations 

 or frustules incessantly slip backward and 

 forward over each other, with a more or 

 less isochronal motion, yet so as always to 

 adhere to each other. The whole mass is 

 thus in motion, though the several groups 

 cf frustules, of which it is composed, may 

 be moving in opposite directions. An ob- 

 stacle, says Mr. Smith, is not evaded but 

 pushed aside : or, if sufficient to avert the 

 onward course, the latter is detained for a 

 time equal to that which it would have oc- 

 cupied in its forward progress, and then 

 retires from the impediment as if it had ac- 

 complished its full course. The motion is 

 about one two-hundredth of an inch per 

 second. [M. J. B.] 



BACILLE. (Fr.) Crithmum mariti- 

 mum. 



BACILLI. The separable moving nar- 

 row plates, of which the genus Diatoma is 

 composed. 



BACILLUS. The little bulbs found on 

 the inflorescence of some plants; a term 

 rarely employed. 



BACKHOUSIA. One or two showy- 

 flowered myrtaceous plants have been 



interior containing 

 several seeds in each of its two compart- 

 ments. B. myrtifolia is a small tree, with 

 opposite ovate pointed leaves, and stalked 

 corymbs of whitish flowers, and is culti- 

 vated as a greenhouse plant. [M. T. MJ 



BACTRIDIUM. A very curious genus of 

 Fungi, of rather doubtful affinity, but sup- 

 posed to belong to the division coniomy- 

 cetes,aud to be allied toCoryneum. The plant 

 consists almost entirely of oblong septate 

 hyaline spores, which radiate from a little 

 dot-like receptacle. The spores in our 

 most conspicuous native species, B.flavum, 

 which occurs in this country, although 

 but rarely, on dead elm stumps, are of a 

 pale yellow. We have a species from Vene- 

 zuela, with enormous spores, one-sixtieth of 

 an inch long, which afford an interesting 

 microscopic objectunder a low magnifying 

 power; in this the spores, when seen en 

 masse, are of a pale fawn colour. [M. J. BJ 

 BACTRIS. A genus of slender palms, 

 natives of the West Indies, Brazil, and 

 other tropical countries on the eastern 

 side of South America; generally growing 

 in low marshy places, or inundated tracts 

 of land, upon the banks of rivers, and on 

 the sea coast. There are about forty spe- 

 cies, but very few of them attain anything 

 like the majestic proportions of the gen- 

 erality of palms, the majority having thin 

 reed-like stems, not much exceeding the 

 height of a man. A few, however, grow 

 to a height of forty or even fifty feet, with 

 trunks averaging about four inches in 

 diameter. Almost all of them are armed 

 with sharp black or brown spines, several 

 having their stems encircled with bands 

 of them, placed at short intervals all the 

 way up, whilst others have them only at 

 their summits ; and, as they usually grow 

 together in large masses, and throw up 

 numerous suckers from their creeping 

 roots, they offer a really formidable and 

 often impassable barrier both to man and 

 beast. Their flower-spikes are produced 

 either from the apex of the trunk or from 

 the bases of the leaves, and while young 

 are enclosed in a double sheathing spathe, 

 which, in nearly all the species, is densely 

 covered with short black spines. The male 

 and female flowers are borne upon the 

 same spike, and are yellow, green, or rose- 

 coloured; the males have a three-parted 

 thin calyx, and three fleshy petals, and 

 contain from six to twelve stamens ; the 

 females have a cup-shaped or cylindrical 

 considered to form a new genus, named in ! calyx and corolla, three-toothed at the 

 honour of Mr. James Backhouse, who has apex, and they contain a triangular ovary, 

 travelled much in Australia and South ; with three sessile stigmas. Their fruits 

 Africa, and otherwise contributed to ad- j are generally small, seldom exceeding a 

 ranee botanical science. The principal ' pigeon's egg in size, and frequently not 

 characters of the genus are : the tube of larger than a pea, mostly of a bluish black 

 the calyx covered with dense hairs, the ; colour, having a thin coating of white 

 five segments of the limb large, whitish, fibrous pulp surrounding a hard black 

 and petal-like ; the petals themselves ! stone, which has three small holes at the 

 small and comparatively inconspicuous; top, and contains a single seed. Their 

 the stamens very numerous, and lonper leaves do not fall away from the trunk like 

 than the calyx or the corolla ; the ovary i those of many other palms, but remain 



