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(£f)C ®xtR£\ir$ of 28otang. 



158 



earthenware jar tied on the end of the | 

 spike. A tree continues to yield toddy I 

 for four or five months, the toddyman 

 ascending the tree every morning to 

 empty the jar, and at the same time to 

 cut a fresh slice off the end of the spike. 

 Palm toddy is intoxicating, and when 

 distilled yields strong arrack. Very good 

 vinegar is also obtained from it ; but its 

 most important product is jaggery, or 

 palm-sugar, large quantities of winch 

 come to this country. The fruits of this 

 palm are about the size of a child's head, 

 and are produced in bunches of fifteen or 

 twenty together. They have a thick coating 

 of fibrous pulp, which the natives roast 

 and eat, or make into a jelly. But the most 

 singular use of this palm is the consump- 

 tion of the young seedlings as an article 

 of food ; these are cultivated for the 

 market, and either eaten in a fresh state 

 or after being dried in the sun, or else they 

 are made into a very nutritious kind of 

 meal. 



B. cethiopum is a native of the central 

 part of tropical Africa, occurring from the 

 Niger on the west to Nubia on the east. 

 It "forms a large tree resembling, the Pal- 

 myra in general appearance, but having a 

 curious bulging out or swelling in its 

 stem at about the middle of its height. 

 Its leaves and fruits are used by the 

 Africans for the same purposes as those of 

 the Palmyra by the Asiatics, and its young 

 seedlings are likewise used for food ; but 

 the custom of extracting toddy does not 

 appear to be known in Africa. [A. S.] 



BORBONIA. A genus of the pea- 

 flowered section of the leguminous family, 

 numbering thirteen species, all of them 

 natives of South Africa. They are small 

 shrubs with simple alternate many-nerved 

 leaves. The flowers, arranged in axillary or 

 terminal few-flowered racemes, are yellow, 

 as in those of the common broom, and much 

 like them but smaller. The pods are linear 

 compressed and often covered with long 

 soft hairs, and contain few seeds. The 

 segments of the calyx are equal, and the 

 upper petal or vexillum is hairy; these 

 two characters distinguishing the genus 

 from its allies. B. crenata has roundish 

 leaves which embrace the stem by their 

 base, and terminal racemes of pretty yel- 

 low blossoms. jB. parvi flora has many- 

 nerved sharp-pointed leaves like those of 

 the butcher"s-broom (Ruscus). The genus 

 was named in honour of Gaston deBourbon, 

 Duke of Orleans, son of Henry IV. of 

 France, a patron of botany. [A. A. B.] 



BORECOLE. A loose or open-headed 

 variety of the cabbage, Brassica oleracea, 

 cultivated in gardens under the name of 

 Kale. 



BORKHAUSIA. A family of compound 

 flowers allied to the hawkweeds and dan- 

 delion. Several species are described as 

 inhabiting Southern Europe, all of which 

 are annuals. Two are natives of Great 

 Britain, but are of rare occurrence. The 

 group to which they belong are very 



difficult of discrimination, and will scarcely 

 admit of a satisfactory popular description. 

 They have yellow flowers, and leaves some- 

 what like those of the dandelion. B. 

 fcetida has an unpleasant odour, in which a 

 flavour of bitter almonds can be distin- 

 guished. B. rubra, an Italian species, is 

 cultivated as a border plant ; it has com- 

 pound leaves and large flowers of a delicate 

 rose colour or sometimes white. (French, 

 Barkhausie.) [C. A. J.] 



BORONIA. This name was applied in 

 honour of Francis Borone, an Italian 

 attendant of Dr. Sibthorp, of Flora Grccca 

 celebrity, to a genus of Butacece. The 

 genus is known by a four-cleft persis- 

 tent calyx ; four ovate persistent petals ; 

 eight stamens, of which the four opposite 

 the sepals are fertile, the remaining four 

 abortive, with filaments studded with 

 hairs and bent inwards ; four styles, erect, 

 approximate or fused together ; carpels 

 four to two-valved, combined within into a 

 four-celled capsule ; seeds few in each cell, 

 flattened. The species are shrubs, natives 

 of New Holland, with opposite pinnate 

 leaves and pretty pinkish or whitish 

 flowers. Many of them are in cultivation 

 as elegant greenhouse shrubs. [M. T. M.] 



BORYA. The same as Forestiera. 



BOSCIA. Louis Bosc was a French 

 professor of agriculture ; and in his honour 

 this genus of Cappariclacece was named. 

 The plants have four sepals disunited or 

 joined together at the base only; petals 

 none ; stamens twelve to twenty ; berry glo- 

 bose, stalked, one-seeded ; leaves simple. 

 The species are natives of Africa. B. se- 

 nefjiilcnsis is in cultivation as an orna- 

 mental stove-plant. [M. T. M.] 



BOSEA. A genus consisting of a shrub 

 from the Canary Islands, of which the 

 natural order is doubtful, but most gene- 

 rally supposed to be Chenopodiacece. The 

 leaves are alternate, exstipulate, shortly- 

 stalked, elliptical-acuminate, and shining; 

 racemes axillary and terminal, the flowers 

 small polygamous-dioecious ; perianth flve- 

 cleft, membranous, with two bracts; sta- 

 mens five ; ovary one-celled ; drupe sub- 

 globose, fleshy ; embryo with foliaceous 

 cotyledons. [J. T. S.] 



BOSSED. Circular and flat, with a promi- 

 nent centre, like the Highland target : as in 

 the fruit of Paliurus australis. 



BOSSI^EA. A genus of Australian 

 shrubs or small herbs belonging to the 

 pea-flowered section of the leguminous 

 family. Their stems are round or com- 

 pressed, often when compressed without 

 leaves ; the leaves are simple, of various 

 forms, and the flowers are axillary and soli- 

 tary, always yellow, the base of the vexil- 

 lum or the keel generally blotched or veined 

 with purple. The genus differs from its 

 allies in its alternate leaves and compressed 

 pods, the margins of which are thickened 

 but not winged. It is named in honour of 

 M. Bossieu Larmartiniere, a French bota- 

 nist, who accompanied La Peyrouse in his 



