BENZ] 



(£f)e Crea^urf) of 98 a tang. 



136 



nine in number, with a uniform compressed 

 head, alternating with the rows of stamens. 

 The fruit is succulent, seated on the perma- 

 nent six-cleft calyx. B. odoriferum, which 

 furnishes an aromatic stimulant tonic bark, 

 is a bush of eight to ten feet high, with ob- 

 long or elliptic wedge-shaped leaves, and 

 small yellow flowers on naked umbels ap- 

 pearing before the leaves. The berries are 

 said to have been used in the United States 

 during the American war, as a substitute 

 for allspice ; and they yield an aromatic 

 stimulant oil. [T. M.] 



BENZOIN. The gum-resinous or balsamic 

 exudation of the Benjamin tree, Styrax 

 Benzoin. A milky juice resembling benzoin 

 is also obtained from Terminalia Benzoin. 

 — , FALSE. A name given in Bourbon to 

 Terminalia maiiritiana, which furnishes a 

 resinous gum resembling benzoin. 



BE'QUETTE. (Fr.) Delphinium Ajacis. 



BERAR. Caladium costatum, which is 

 said to supply an edible root to the natives. 



BERBERIDACE^E. (_Berberids.) A natural 

 order of Exogenous plants, belonging to 

 the Thalainifloral sub-class of De Candolle. 

 Lindley includes the order in his Berberal 

 Alliance along with vineworts and fume- 

 worts. The plants of this family are 

 shrubs or herbaceous perennials, with 

 alternate compound leaves, which are often 

 spiny. Sepals three, four, or six in a double 

 row ; petals equal to sepals in number, or 

 twice as many ; stamens equal in number 

 to petals and opposite to them : anthers 

 having two lobes, each opening by a valve, 

 which rolls up from the bottom to the top. 

 Ovary solitary and one-celled ; stigma or- 

 bicular. Fruit, either a berry or a capsule, 

 with one, two, or three seeds. These plants 

 are found in the mountainous parts of 

 the Northern Hemisphere, and of South 

 America as far as the Straits of Magalhaens. 

 They are common in thenorthern provinces 

 of India. None occur in Africa, Australa- 

 sia, or the South Sea Islands. They possess 

 acid, bitter, and astringent qualities. The 

 fruit of some is used as a preserve, and 

 sometimes eaten in a fresh or dried state. 

 Oxalic acid occurs in some of the species. 

 The stem and bark of several barberries 

 are used in dyeing yellow. The astringent 

 substance called Lycium of Dioscorides is 

 supposed to be furnished by the root of 

 various species of barberry ; and a prepa- 

 ration of a similar kind is much used as a 

 febrifuge in India. The pinnate-leaved 

 barberries in cultivation form the sub- 

 genus Mahonia. In the order there are 

 twelve genera and 110 species. See Berberis, 

 Epimedium, Leontice, Nandina, DiphyUeja, 

 and Jeffersonia. [J. H. BJ 



BERBERIS. The typical genus of the 

 family Berberidacece. It consists of shrubs 

 found chiefly in the temperate parts of 

 Europe, Asia, and America, having the 

 leaves simple or pinnate, the primary ones 

 sometimes abortive or changed into simple 

 or variously divided spines, with a tuft of 



smaller secondary leaves in their axils 

 The flowers consist of a six to nine-leaved 

 deciduous calyx of coloured sepals, disposed 

 in two to three series : six hypogynous 

 clawed petals opposite the interior row of 

 sepals, and having two glands inside at the 

 base ; six stamens opposite the petals, and 

 opening by valves; and a one-celled ovary 

 containing two to eight erect ovules, and 

 surmounted by a peltate s.tigma on a very 

 short style. This grows into a one-celled 

 ovary containing from one to eight seeds. 

 The pinnate-leaved species are sometimes 

 separated under the name of Mahonia ; 

 these have the glands at the base of the 

 petals frequently obsolete. [T. M.] 



The common Berberry, or Barberry, jB. 

 vulgaris, forms a deciduous shrub, attain- 

 ing the height of eight or ten feet. It is 

 found wild in Britain as well as most other 

 parts of Europe, and is also commonly met 

 with in a wild state in North America, and 

 particularly in New England ; but it is 

 very doubtful whether the plant is really 

 indigenous to that continent or was carried 

 there by the early settlers, and disseminated 

 through the agency of birds. The distin- 

 guished botanists Torrey and Gray affirm 

 that it was introduced ; and this opinion Is 

 strengthened by the fact of the species not 

 being found in Iceland and Labrador, nor 

 in the eastern parts of Siberia. The 

 Berberry forms a compact bush, composed 

 of numerous very spiny shoots springing 

 from the base, which are covered with a 

 whitish bark, the wood itself being of a 

 fine yellow. The leaves are small, obovate, 

 toothed, and ciliated on the margin, and of 

 a pleasant green ; the flowers are yellow, 

 appearing in May. The berries are in 

 pendulous racemes; their colour is gene- 

 rally bright red, but in some varieties they 

 are purple or yellowish-white. Occasionally 

 plants are met with, the berries of which 

 have no seeds ; but such do not constitute 

 a permanent variety, for stoneless ber- 

 berries are only found on old plants ; and 

 it has been proved that young suckers 

 taken from them and planted in fresh soil, 

 fruit with perfect seeds. The fruit is too 

 acid for use in its natural state; but it 

 makes excellent refreshing preserves, for 

 which Rouen is particularly celebrated. 

 It is likewise candied ; and when green is 

 sometimes pickled in vinegar. The inner 

 bark affords a bright yellow dye. The 

 roots, which are of deep yellow colour 

 throughout, boiled in an alkaline ley, 

 yield a yellow dye, used in Poland for 

 colouring leather. [R. T.] 



The bark of the Berberry, of which a de- 

 coction was made, was formerly much cele- 

 brated as a remedy in jaundice, but it has 

 long since been discarded from modern 

 practice, as its claims as a medicinal plant 

 onlyrested upon the doctrine of similitudes, 

 which assumed that nature when she 

 made a plant, impressed upon it some sign 

 to point out its curative properties to 

 those who properly sought such knowledge. 

 In this way it was supposed that as the 

 patient's skin in jaundice is yellow, so the 



