banq] 



K\yt Ereagurj) of 3SDtanji. 



122 



Australian colonists, in consequence of 

 the great quantity of honey Avhich the 

 flowers contain. These plants, from their 

 handsome and peculiar foliage, have always 

 "been great favourites in gardens. The ap- 

 pearance of the Banksias in their native 

 habitats is shown in a view of the vegeta- 

 tion of New South Wales, taken near Port 

 Jackson, which forms the subject of 

 Plate 5. [R. H.] 



BANQUOIS. A name given in the 

 Mauritius to a species of Screw-pine, Pan- 

 danus vacua, the leaves of which are used 

 for making sacks. 



BANYAN-TREE. Ficus indica. 



BAOBAB-TREE. Adansonia digitata. 



BAPHIA. A genus of leguminous 

 plants (Fabacece: Ccesalpiniece), four spe- 

 cies of which are described in botanical 

 works, all of them natives of the coast of 

 western tropical Africa. They are either 

 trees or shrubs, with unequally pinnate 

 leaves. Their flowers are produced in 

 clusters, upon short stalks at the bases of 

 the leaves, each flower having two small 

 bracts underneath its calyx ; they have a 

 sheathing calyx which splits along the 

 underside, and is either entire or five- 

 toothed ; their corolla is papilionaceous ; 

 and they have ten free stamens, all fertile. 

 The fruit is a narrow flattened straight or 

 sickle-shaped pod, of a leathery texture, 

 and having its edges slightly thickened : 

 it contains numerous seeds, and splits open 

 when ripe. 



B. nitida, which produces the Camwood 

 or Barwood of commerce, is a tree grow- 

 ing to the height of forty or fifty feet. 

 It has shining green leaves, composed of 

 two pairs of leaflets, with an odd one, and 

 its yellow flowers bear some resemblance 

 to those of the common laburnum of our 

 gardens. About 300 or 400 tons of the wood 

 of this tree are annually imported from 

 Sierra Leone, being collected from various 

 parts of the coast between that place and 

 Angola. In 1858 the imports were 464 tons, 

 valued at 13,833Z. It usually comes in 

 trimmed logs, about four feet in length 

 and a foot in diameter, but sometimes, 

 though rarely, in the form of balls or cakes, 

 made of the roughly powdered wood. It is 

 of a deep red colour, and yields a brilliant 

 but not permanent dye ; with a mordaunt 

 of sulphate of iron it produces the red 

 colour of the English Bandana handker- 

 chiefs, and dyers generally employ it for 

 much the same purposes as the better 

 known Brazil-wood. The native women on 

 the West coast of Africa use the pounded 

 wood for painting their bodies ; amulets 

 are also made of it, and it is used in their 

 Fetish ceremonies. [A. S.] 



BAPTISIA. American herbaceous plants 

 belonging to the order Leguminosw, among 

 which they are distinguished by their two- 

 lipped calyx, by their petals, which are equal 

 in length, their deciduous stamens, and 

 swollen pod, which is supported by a stalk, 

 and many-seeded. All the species are her- 



baceous, and, with one exception, B. per- 

 foliate), (in which the leaves are simple and 

 entire), have trifoliate leaves. They grow 

 from one to two feet high, and bear blue or 

 yellow flowers, either solitary or in clusters. 

 They are ornamental border flowers, and 

 being perennial may be increased by divi- 

 sion of the roots. One species, B. tinctoria, 

 a native of dry hilly woods from Canada 

 to Carolina, has been used as indigo by 

 dyers, and from this the name (from the 

 Greek bapto, to dye) was given to the genus. 

 The root and leaves are said to possess as- 

 tringent and antiseptic properties. The 

 species most frequently cultivated are B. 

 australis (French, Baptisie de la Caroline 

 or Podalyre), a pretty border plant, with 

 large blue flowers, tinged on the keel with 

 greenish white, and arranged in a long 

 cluster : and B. minor, a smaller plant with 

 blue or white flowers. [C. A. J.] 



BARANETZ, or BAROMETZ. Cibotium 

 Barometz, called the Scythian Lamb. Bar an 

 is Russian for Lamb. 



BARB A JO VIS. Anthyllis Barba Jovis. 



BARBACENIA. A genus of monocoty- 

 ledonous plants, related to Vellozia, and 

 referred with some doubt to the order 

 Hcemodoracece. It consists of perennial 

 herbs, with simple or dichotomously- 

 branched stems, which sometimes attain 

 two or three feet, or sometimes more, in 

 height, and are furnished at the ends with 

 spirally disposed firm spreading narrow 

 acute-keeled leaves, from amongst which 

 issue one-flowered scapes, which areusually 

 clothed with glandular and resiniferous 

 hairs, especially towards the top. The 

 flowers are large and generally showy, and 

 consist of a funnel-shaped perianth, resi- 

 nosely-hairy on the outside, the base of 

 the tube confluent with the ovary, and the 

 limb spreading, of six equal segments ; 

 there are six included stamens, having 

 piano-compressed filaments, which are 

 three-toothed at the apex, the middle tooth 

 being the smaller and bearing the anther. 

 The ovary is three-celled, containing nu- 

 merous ovules affixed in the central angles 

 of the cells, and becomes a cylindraceo- 

 three-cornered capsule. The style is tri- 

 quetrous, three-parted, and the stigma is 

 capitate, three-cornered. There are upwards 

 of a dozen species, all South American, and 

 nearly all found in Brazil, where they occur 

 in hot dry mountain regions, lying between 

 14° and 20° S.lat. B. Alexandrine:-, found in 

 the southern parts of British Guiana by 

 Sir R. Schomburgh, is stated to grow from 

 ten to twelve feet high. B. purpurea, one 

 of the most familiar species, is frequently 

 met with in hothouses, and affords a very 

 good illustration of the family. This has 

 a short dichotomous striated stem, bearing 

 numerous linear acuminate rigid leaves, 

 sheathing at the base, and minutely spiny- 

 toothed at the margin. The flower-stalks are 

 longer than the leaves, one-flowered ; the 

 flowers erect, rich violaceous purple, with 

 lanceolate segments, the three inner of 

 which are broader and more erect than the 



