aspect of the species is similar. B. edulis, 

 a "West Indian species, produces tubers 

 which are eaten in St. Domingo like those 

 of the Jerusalem artichoke are in this 

 country. [T. M.] 



BOMBACEJE. The Silk-cotton family, 

 a group of Thalamifloral dicotyledons or 

 Exogens belonging to Lindley's malral 

 alliance, and usually considered as a sub 

 order of Steeculiaceje. [J. H. B.] 



BOMBAX. Derived from the Greek 

 word bombyx, signifying raw silk, and 

 applied to a genus of large soft-wooded 

 trees belonging to the order of sterculiads 

 (Sterculiacece), the fruits of which contain 

 , a beautiful silky substance attached to 

 I their seeds, and to which the name of Silk- 

 1 cotton has been appropriately given. There 

 : are about a dozen species, almost entire- 

 ly confined to the tropical regions of Anie- 

 i rica, one species only being a native of 

 Western Africa. Several Indian species, 

 however, were formerly included in the 

 I genus, but they are now separated under 

 j the name of Salmalia ; and the West In- 

 I dian tree, commonly called B. Ceiba or God- 

 tree, is the same as Eriodendron anfractu- 

 osum. Their flowers are produced either 

 singly or in clusters upon the trunk or 

 old'branches, and are generally large and 

 of a white or greenish colour : they have 

 a short calyx shaped like the cup of an 

 acorn, and a corolla of five pieces joined 

 together at the bottom ; their stamens are 

 arranged in five or more bundles, which 

 are connected together at the base into a 

 short cylindrical tube, the filaments being 

 divided into two branches near the top, 

 each bearing an anther ; and they have a 

 shield-like stigma with five angles and 

 furrowed sides. Their fruit is a large 

 woody capsule, containing numerous seeds 

 arranged in five cells, each seed being 

 surrounded by a quantity of beautiful 

 silky hairs, and when ripe it bursts into 

 five pieces, allowing the escape of the 

 seeds, which are then wafted about by the 

 wind. 



B. Mungvba is a smooth-stemmed tree 

 about eighty or one hundred feet high, 

 commonly found on the banks of the 

 Amazon river and the Rio Negro, where 

 the natives call it Mnngnba. It has large 

 smooth leaves deeply cut into eight divi- 

 sions radiating from a centre, and large 

 white or greenish flowers arranged in twos 

 or threes on the branches. Its fruit is 

 about eight inches long by four wide, and 

 of a clear brick-red colour. The silk- 

 cotton surrounding its seeds is of a light 

 brown colour, and, although exceedingly 

 beautiful, it has not hitherto been employed 

 for any purpose more important than 

 stuffing cushions; but it is to be hoped 

 that a better use will some day be found 

 for it. 



B. pubescens is called Embirussu in the 

 province of ilinas Geraes, in Brazil. This 

 species does not attain the great height of 

 the preceding, being generally only about 

 twenty-five or thirty feet high. It has a 



smooth trunk covered with a very tough 

 fibrous bark, which the Brazilians use for 

 making ropes. The leaves are variable 

 in shape ; those on the lower part of the 

 branches being hand-shaped, that is, cut 

 into five radiating divisions, whilst those 

 higher up on the branches have only three 

 divisions : they are of a leathery texture 

 and covered on the under side with star- 

 like hairs. The large flowers are clothed 

 with white silky down. [A. SJ 



BOMBYCINE. Silky, feeling like silk : 

 this term is not applied to hairiness of 

 any sort. 



BONAVERIA. A genus of the pea- 

 flower family (Leguminosce), consisting of 

 a single species, B. securigera, formerly 

 placed in the genus Coronilla, with which 

 it accords entirely in habit, but differs in 

 the form of the pod, which is about f our 

 inche§ long by a quarter of an inch wide, 

 flattened, thickened at both margins, and 

 not jointed distinctly between the seeds. 

 In Coronilla, on the contrary, the pod is 

 nearly cylindrical, and distinctly jointed. 

 The plant grows in South Europe, and is a 

 smooth pea-green herb afoot or more high, 

 with unequally pinnate leaves five or six 

 inches long, made up of many pairs of 

 wedge-shaped leaflets ; the yellow flowers 

 are borne in an umbellate manner at the 

 end of along naked stalk, the umbels being 

 about half an inch across. It is often 

 seen in collections of herbaceous plants, 

 and is frequently called Securigera Coro- 

 nilla. [A. A. BJ 



BONA-NOX. Ipomaea Bona-nox; Argy- 

 reia or Rivea Bona-nox ; Smilax Bona-nox. 



BONAPARTEA. A genus of Bromelia- 

 ceo?, named in honour of Napoleon I., 

 and consisting of plants with tufted 

 narrow rigid leaves, which are convolute 

 at the base ; hermaphrodite flowers pro- 

 tected by bracts, and arranged on a simple 

 or cone-like or branched scape ; sepals 

 spirally twisted, either all equal in size, or 

 the two hinder ones larger, all more or less 

 adherent at the base ; petals convolute at 

 the base, forming a tube, linear-lance- 

 shaped and spreading at the top ; stamens 

 hypogynous, distinct, the filaments thread- 

 shaped,the anthers sagittate, protruded be- 

 yond the corolla. The ovary is superior 

 with a thread-like style and three linear 

 fringed stigmas coiled up spirally. The 

 fruit is an ovate capsule, dehiscing by 

 three valves, which expose a central 

 column bearing the numerous seeds each 

 provided with a hair-like appendage. 

 Two species are in cultivation, one es- 

 j pecially, B. juncea, a graceful plant, from 

 its elegant drooping grass-like leaves. 

 The same name has also been applied to a 

 genus of Amaryllidacew, now included 

 under Littma. [M. T. M.] 



BONATEA. Under this name are col- 

 lected many species of terrestrial orchids, 

 with the oblong fleshy roots of our wild 

 Orchis. The genus is perhaps not distinct 

 from Habenaria, from which it is only 



