bell] 



W^z €rca£urg at 3Sfltang. 



134 



BBLLIS. The Daisy : the favourite 

 flower of the poets of nature, from 

 Chaucer to Burns ; the first which children 

 learn to call toy name, and thenceforth 

 love for evermore. The ' toonnie gem ' of 

 the latter poet was regarded by ' the firste 

 fynder of our fayre langage'' with such 

 deep feeling, that the reader cannot tout toe 

 pleased to have the opportunity of culling 

 its characters from the following ex- 

 tracts : — 



' And lening on my eltoowe and my side 

 The longe daie I shope me for to' abide, 

 For nothing ellis, and I shall nat lie, 

 But for to lookin upon the Daisie, 

 That well toy reson men it calle maie 

 The Daisie, or els the eye of the daie, 

 The emprise,and the floure of flouris alle. 



' Whan that the sunne out of the south 



gan west, 

 And that this floure gan close and gon to 



rest 

 For darknes of the night, the which she 



drede, 

 Home to my house full swiftly I me 



spede 

 To gone to rest, and erly for to rise 

 To seene this floure to sprede as I devise. 



He falls asleep, and, in his dre^m, the 

 Queen of Love appears, 'clad in roiali 

 habite grene,' with a fret of gold on her 

 head — 

 'And upon that a white coroune she here 

 For all the worlde sight as a Daisie 

 Icrounid is, with white levis lite, 

 So were the flowrins of her croune white. 

 For of a perle fine orientall 

 Her white coroune was imakid all, 

 For which the white coroune above the 



grene 

 Tmade her like a Daisie for to sene 

 Considrid eke her fret of gold atoove.' 



* The flour 



Icrownid al with white, as men maie se, 



And Mars egave her a coroun red parde, 



Instede of rutoies set among the white.' 



And as the Queen of Love was crowned 



with the flowers which the poet did ' love 



and drede,' so the fairest land he had ever 



seen was 



' a launde of white and grene ; 

 The grounde was grene, ypendrid with 

 Daisye.' 

 The daisy again fills a prominent place in 

 the 'Floure and the Leafe,' where the 

 hand of knights and ladies 



' found a tuft that was 

 All ovirsprad with flouris in compas, 



Whereto they enclinid everiehone 

 With grete reverence, and that full 



humbly : 

 And at the last mere this began anon 

 A lady for to sing right womanly 

 A bargaret in praising the Daisie, 

 For (as methought) among her notis 



swete, 

 She said, "Si douce est la Margarete!"' 



[ Marguerite, the reader need scarcely be 

 informed, is the French for ' a pearl,' and 

 I ' a daisy.' [C. A. J.] 



BELLITTM. The species of this genus 

 I are five in number — one of them, B. cordi- 

 folium, found in Spain, and the others in 

 . Southern Italy, and the neighbouring 

 islands. They are nearly related to the 

 common daisy {Bellis perennis), and all of 

 them are plants of a very similar appear- 

 ance, but they differ in having a pappus of 

 six to eight broad scales, torn at the apex, 

 alternating with an equal number of long 

 scabrous bristles. [A. A. B.] 



BELL WORTS. An English name for 

 the group Campanulacece. The term Bell- 

 wort is also used in America for TJvularia. 



BELLYING. When a round body is 

 more prominent on one side, or at one 

 point, than at another. 



BELMONTIA. A genus of GentianacecB, 

 which maybe recognised by the calyx,which 

 is more or less deeply divided, five-parted, 

 with prominent angles or wings ; a regular 

 five-cleft corolla, with an almost cylindrical 

 tube; five stamens included within the 

 corolla ; a stigma, with two roundish club- 

 shaped lobes; and a two-celled capsule, 

 whose placenta ultimately divides into 

 four pieces. The plants are natives of 

 Southern Africa. [M. T. M.] 



BELOTES. The Spanish and Italian 

 name for the edible nuts or acorns of 

 Quercus Gramuntia. 



BELOANTHERA. A genus of Mesem- 

 bryacece, founded on a herb from Java, 

 which has a procumbent rooting stem, 

 nearly sessile alternate leaves, a glandular 

 hairy calyx, five very small white petals, 

 five stamens, and two deflexed styles, 

 with violet stigmas. [J. T. SJ 



BELOPERONE. A considerable genus 

 of Acanthacece, from tropical America, 

 containing many species of beautiful 

 shrubs, with large purple or blue flowers, 

 borne on short secund axillary or terminal 

 spikes, and having the bracts frequently 

 brightly-coloured. The calyx is deeply 

 five-cleft, the corolla gaping, the upper lip 

 concave, the lower trifid. The two sta- 

 mens are inserted in the corolla tube ; 

 the anthers are spurred at the base. The 

 two-celled ovary has two ovules in each 

 cell; the stigma is subulate. The lower 

 half of the capsule is unguiculate, without 

 seeds, the upper portion containing four 

 coloured discoid seeds. [W. C] 



BELOTIA. A genus of the lime-tree 

 family (Tiliacece), and nearly allied to 

 Greivia, but differing from that genus in 

 having a two-celled capsule, with many 

 seeds in each cell ; while the fruit of 

 Grewia is from four to eight-celled, each 

 cell containing but one seed. Only one 

 species, B. grewkefolia, is known. This is 

 found in Mexico and Cuba. It is a small 

 tree, having the younger branches thickly 

 clothed with dense starry hairs. Its leaves 



