151 



€fyz Crea^urg of ISatattg. 



[blts 



ca&yptus paniculate — , of Victoria. Eu- 

 calyptus corymbosa. 



BLOOD-TREE. Croton gossypifolium 



BLOODWORT. Sanguinaria canadensis ; 

 also an old name for Eumex sanguineus. 



BLUEBELL. Hyacinthus nonscriptus 

 — , SCOTCH. Campanula rotundifolia, the 

 ' Bluebell of Scotland.' 



BLUEBERRY. An American name for 

 Yaccinium. 



BLUEBOTTLE. Centaurea Cyanus. 



BLUE HEARTS. An American name 

 for Buchnera. 



BLUE MOULD. A name commonly 

 given to Aspergillus glaucus when growing 

 upon cheese. In some cases its presence is 

 thought so desirable from its inducing a 

 particular condition of the curd that pains 

 are taken to inoculate cheeses with the 

 mould. It is not clear that the Aspergillus 

 is the only mould to which the name has 

 been applied. Cheese is generally eaten in 

 such small quantities that if the mould 

 has any deleterious properties they are not 

 experienced : but it is believed that this or 

 some allied mould when produced abun- 

 dantly in dried sausages or rolled bacon, 

 known under the name of Italian cheese, 

 has often produced disastrous and even 

 fatal results. It has, however, been sup- 

 posed that some decomposition in the 

 meat may have taken place before the 

 mould had made its appearance, and that 

 the bad effects were due to this rather than 

 to the fungus. Similar effects have been 

 produced byeatingbread made of damaged 

 flour, which was overrun with fungi a few 

 hours after it was taken from the oven. 

 It is asserted that in either case a con- 

 siderable quantity of the fungus has been 

 collected and swallowed without producing 

 any evil consequences, and that the poison- 

 ous quality must therefore be ascribed to 

 the meat or bread itself, and not to the 

 fungus. As the question is of some con- 

 sequence, further experiments are de- 

 sirable. [M. J. B.] 



BLUE TANGLES. An American name 

 for Yaccinium frondosum. 



BLUE-WEED. An American name for 

 Echium vulgare. 



BLUET. (Fr.) Centaurea Cyanus. — , 

 DU LEVANT. Centaurea moschata. 



BLUETS. An American name for Yacci- 

 nium angustifolium ; also for Hedyotis 

 ccerulea. 



\ BLUMEA. A large genus of the com- 

 i posite family, annual or perennial weeds, 

 found in the tropical or sub-tropical 

 countries of the Old World, the greater 

 part in India, and the islands of the 

 Indian ocean, a few in Africa, and still 

 fewer in Australia. Above one hundred 

 species are enumerated. Their leaves are 

 alternate, and vary much in size and form : 

 in the greater portion they are oblong, 



sessile, cordate at the base, and toothed. 

 and, as well as the stems, clothed with 

 villous hairs ; in others they are large 

 pinnatifid and smooth, somewhat like those 

 of a sow-thistle ; while in a third group 

 they are dilated at the base and prolonged 

 down the stem, so as to gi?e to it a 

 winged appearance. The flower-heads are 

 generally arranged in loose panicles or 

 corymbs, their florets all tubular, those of 

 the ray female, those of the disc male, 

 and either purple or yellow in colour. 



B. scandens, a native of Borneo, and a 

 few others, are long scrambling shrubs, 

 often found growing among brushwood ; 

 they have pretty purple flowers. B. aurita 

 and B. lacera, both Indian species with 

 small yellow flowers, have a strong turpen- 

 tine smell, and are used by the natives in 

 cases of dyspepsia. B. balsamifera, when 

 bruised, smells strongly of camphor, and 

 B. aromatica has, as its name implies, a 

 sweet aromatic smell. [A. A. B.] 



BLUMEISTBACHIA. A curious genus of 

 loasads, comprising several species of 

 climbing annuals, of which two only are 

 known to be in cultivation, B. insignis 

 and B. multiflda. In habit and inflores- 

 cence the genus closely resembles true 

 Loasa, having like it flowers with five 

 spreading boat-shaped petals ; the stamens 

 placed opposite to them in five distinct 

 parcels, arranged horizontally within them 

 when the flower first expands, but ulti- 

 mately becoming erect ; and alternating 

 with these five fleshy concave scales to 

 which sterile filaments are attached. In 

 the structure of their fruit, however, the 

 two genera differ very materially ; that of 

 Blumenbacliia being of a roundish spongy 

 character, spirally striated, splitting to 

 the base when ripe into ten pieces, five of 

 which are real valves, having the black 

 wrinkled seedsimbedded in their substance, 

 three on each side, the alternate five thin- 

 ner pieces being the dissepiments or par- 

 titions of the fruit. B. insignis has an 

 angular-branched stem, clothed with hairs, 

 some of which are simply glandular, and 

 others of a stinging character, with op- 

 posite palmately-lobed or deeply-pinnatifld 

 foliage, and flowers produced singly from 

 the axils of the upper leaves, on long 

 footstalks, which are at first erect, but 

 ultimately drooping. The blossoms of this 

 species are pure white, an inch across, 

 with compressed keeled petals, furnished 

 with a large serrated tooth on each side. 

 B. multiflda is a plant of much stronger 

 growth, more hispid with stings, and with 

 much larger five-parted leaves, longer two- 

 bracted flowerstalks, and broader obtuse 

 petals. Both species are natives of the 

 southern parts of South America, and are 

 not known to possess any sensible pro- 

 perties. [W.T.] 



BLUSHWORT. The common name for 

 uEschynanthus. 



BLTSMUS. A genus of cyperaceous 

 plants, belonging to the tribe Scirpea. 

 The inflorescence is in more or less com- I 



