11 



K\yt Crcatfurj? of 33atang. 



[bala 



slender erect habit, with downy stems 

 about a foot high ; linear opposite entire 

 leaves and solitary terminal bright yellow 

 i flowers, an iuch across. Botanieally, the 

 genus is distinguished by an involucre 

 of about ten leaflets, arranged in two series, 

 a conical naked receptacle, and an elong- 

 ated fruit without pappus. It differs from 

 Callichroa, not only in its general habit, 

 but also by its smaller flower-heads, and 

 the oblong-pointed form of the ray flo- 

 rets, the florets of the latter being wedge- 

 shaped. [W. T.] 



BAGASSA. An imperfectly-known genus 

 of Artocarpacece, comprising one or more 

 species of trees, with opposite leaves, de- 

 ciduous stipules, and orange-shaped fruit, 

 ! consisting of egg-shaped, pointed achenes, 

 clustered around a thick central recep- 

 tacle. This fruit is eaten in Guiana, where 

 the tree is a native. [M. T. II.] 



BAGFENAFDIER. (Fr.) Colutea arbor- 

 escens. — D'ETHIOPIE. Sutherlandia fru- 



BAJREE. PeniciUaria spicata, a bread- 

 corn cultivated in India. 



BALANITES. The name given to a 

 I thorny shrub or small tree, with a very 

 forbidding aspect, growing almost always 

 in dry barren places. Its leaves grow in 

 pairs (binate), the leaflets ova), or oblong, 

 , stalked, and pubescent when young. The 

 flowers are small, greenish, white and fra- 

 grant, arranged in short axillary racemes. 

 ! The fruit is oval, about one and* a half 

 I inch long, and when ripe of a greyish 

 i colour. The plant is a native of many 

 parts of India, Egypt, Senegambia, and the 

 I W. coast of Africa. The leaves in the 

 Egyptian variety are slightly acrid and 

 i anthelmintic, and the bark is used by the 

 ' Ryots in India as a medicine for their 

 cattle. The young fruits are purgative, but 

 when ripe are edible, and formed into an 

 intoxicating drink by the negroes on the W. 

 coast of Africa. In India the nut, which is 

 very hard, is employed in fireworks. A small 

 hole being drilled in it, and the kernel taken 

 out, it is filled with powder and fired, burst- 

 ing with a loud report. An oil, called by 

 the negroes Zachun, is obtained from the 

 seeds, and the wood, which is yellow, hard, 

 and durable, is used in Africa for house- 

 hold work. The place of the plant in a 

 natural arrangement is somewhat doubtful, 

 some authors placing it with Olax, others 

 with Amyris, while a few think it should 

 constitute a separate order. [A. A. B.] 



BALANOPHORACE.E. (Cynomoriurns.') 

 A small natural order, consisting of about 

 thirty species, of singular-looking succu- 

 lent leafless plants, usually highly coloured, 

 of various shades of yellow or red : all 

 parasites on root's, and rising from an inch 

 or two to about a foot above ground. Their 

 colour and consistence, the absence of all 

 leaves, excepting in some species, imbri- 

 cated scales of the colour of the rest of the 

 plant, and the greatly reduced structure of 

 the flowers, had induced some botanists to 



consider them as cryptogams allied to 

 fungi : but their structure is now much 

 better understood, and has been fully de- 

 scribed,especially by Dr.J.D.Hooker. He has 

 shown them to be most nearly connected 

 with Haloragece, and to have no real affinity 

 with Rafflesiacece, Orobanchacea; or airy 

 other root parasites, which assume some- 

 times a similar colour and consistence. 

 The flowers are, in nearly all the species, 

 unisexual, of very simple structure, and 

 produced, in considerable numbers, in com- 

 pact terminal heads or cones; the small 

 perianth, usually simple and inferior in the 

 females, more or less three-cleft or six-cleft 

 in the males, is in some species wholly 

 wanting ; the stamens, usually few, are 

 very variable in number and form ; the 

 ovary has one or two styles, and always a 

 single cavity with one pendulous ovule. 



The Balanophwacece are natives of hot 

 climates, in various parts of both the New 

 and the Old Woi'ld, one species only, the 

 CynomoriumcuccineumorFiingusmcUtiusis 

 of old authors, being found as far north 

 as the southern shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean. They have been distributed into 

 fourteen genera. The most remarkable 

 for the size or beauty of the species, or 

 for the use made of them, are Sarcophyte, 

 Lophophytum, Ombrophytum, Langsdorffla, 

 and Cynomorium. 



BAL A1STOPHORA. Singular leafless par- 

 asitical plants, giving their name to the 

 order Balanophoracece. These plants are 

 found on the roots of oaks, maples, vines, 

 and other trees in tropical countries, espe- 

 cially in mountainous districts. One spe- 

 cies is found in Australia. Some of the 

 Himalayan species cause the formation of 

 large knots on the roots of oaks and maples, 

 which are much sought after by the natives 

 for the manufacture of wooden cups, in 

 general use throughout the Himalaya and 

 Thibet. Some of the species, as B. elongata, 

 furnish wax in great abundance, which is 

 used for making candles in Java. 



[M. T. M.] 



BALANSuEA. A genus of Umbelliferce or 

 Apiacece, consisting of one species, inhabit- 

 ing North Africa. It has a tuberous root, 

 large broadly cut leaves, and hermaphrodite 



j flowers. Each half of the fruit is com- 

 pressed laterally, elongated into a conical 

 'stylopod,' terminated by an erect style, 

 and marked by five prominent thread- 



I like ridges, in the intervals between 

 which, in the rind, run solitary chan- 

 nels, or 'vitta?,' filled with volatile oil, 

 while in the commissure are two such 

 channels ; albumen furrowed. [M. T. M .] 



BALANTIUM. A name proposed for a 

 genus of Ferns, now considered synony- 

 mous with Dicksonia. It is represented by 

 the Dicksonia Culcita of Madeira. [T. M.] 



BALAFSTA. The fruit of the pome- 

 j granate. 



BALAUSTION. A Greek word for the 



: pomegranate, but applied by Sir "W. 

 Hooker to another genus of Myrtacece. B. 



