159 



Klyz £reas'urg at ^otaiig. 



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voyage round the world Many of the 

 species are highly ornamental, and no 

 greenhouse collection of any pretensions 

 is to toe found -without some of them. 

 Among the leafless species in cultivation 

 are B. scolopendra and the sword-branched 

 B. ensata : tooth these, however, when in a 

 seedling condition, have true leaves. 

 Amongst the leafy species the choicest are 

 the slender-stemmed B. tenuicaulis, with 

 ovate acute leaves and very numerous 

 yellow flowers streaked with purple ; B. 

 lanceolata ; and B. disticha, a Swan river 

 species, with ovate acute leaves arranged 

 in a two-ranked manner. [A. A. B.] 



BOSTRTCHIA. A genus of rose-spored 

 Algce "belonging to the natural order Bhodo- 

 melacete, and remarkatole at the same time 

 for the curled tips of the fronds, and their 

 amphibious habit like that of Lichina. 

 B. amphibia occurs on our coasts as high 

 as the Wash, extending from thence to 

 Spain; it grows attached to the base of 

 marine phfenogamous plants, which are 

 covered only at high water. Several 

 species, grow in the United States in 

 similar situations or on the margins of 

 tidal rivers, and others are found nearer 

 the equator and in the Southern hemi- 

 sphere. They do not agree in the structure 

 of the frond, tout their habit and general 

 character are so alike that it is better 

 not to separate them. [M. J. B.] 



B03WELLIA. A genus of the family 

 Amyridaeece, consisting of trees with com- 

 pound leaves ; and white flowers in clusters, 

 each with a small five-toothed persistent 

 calyx, and five petals spreading widely, in- 

 serted, as are also the ten stamens, beneath 

 a cup-shaped fleshy disc, which is larger 

 than the calyx ; the filaments of the 

 stamens are persistent, but the anthers fall 

 off. Ovary sessile, with a long style, ter- 

 minated by a three-lobed stigma. The 

 fruit is triangular, three-celled, and bursts 

 toy the separation of the three component 

 leaves one from the other ; the seeds are 

 winged. These trees are remarkable as 

 furnishing a gum resin. That of B. glabra 

 is used in India in place of pitch, and as a 

 medicine, both externally and internally. 

 The Hindoos employ it as incense in their 

 religious ceremonies. 



B. thurifera, a tree common in Coro- 

 mandel, also known as B. serrata, furnishes 

 the resin known as Olitoanum, which is 

 supposed to have toeen the Frankincense of 

 the ancients. It is rarely used in medicine, 

 but is an astringent and stimulant, and 

 is employed for its grateful perfume as 

 incense in Roman Catholic churches. 

 African olitoanum, a drug rarely met with 

 in this country, has been conjectured with 

 i j much probability to be the product of a 

 ! | species of Boswellia, probably B. papyrir 

 /era, a tree so named on account of 'its 

 bark, which peels off in thin white layers, 

 capable of being used for packing purposes. 

 The two first-mentioned species are in 

 cultivation in our stoves. fM. T. M.] 



B01*HRENCHYMA. The pitted, or dot- 

 ted, or so-called porous- tissue of plants. 



BOTROPHIS. A genus of Banunculacece, 

 synonymous with Macrotis, containing a 

 North American herb allied to Cinvcif u'aa, 

 from which it differs by having only one 

 carpel (very rarely two), which becomes a 

 solitary follicle in fruit. This distin- 

 guishes it from the toerry-toearing Actaia. 

 The leaves are twice or three times ter- 

 nate, with large oval leaflets irregularly 

 cut; the stem is about from three to 

 eight feet high, with long racemes of 

 white flowers, of which the central one is 

 by far the longest : sepals petaloid, white, 

 soon dropping off ; petals, or rather abor- 

 tive stamens, very small with long claws ; 

 stamens numerous, white, and very con- 

 spicuous ; seeds seven or eight in the 

 follicle. The flowers are very fetid, and 

 the large knotted root-stocks, which have 

 a nauseous astringent and bitter taste, are 

 considered in the United States to be a 

 remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake. The 

 only species rejoices in several names both 

 generic and specific. [J. T. S.] 



BOTRTCHIUM. A genus of ophioglos- 

 saceous ferns, distinguished by having the 

 fructifications in a compound or rachif orm 

 panicle, forming a separate branch of the 

 frond. The spore-cases in this group have 

 no jointed band or ring surrounding them, 

 as in the generality of ferns, but are 

 fleshy, coriaceous, ind burst vertically in 

 two equal hemispherical valves. The 

 fronds spring from a short erect fleshy 

 rhizome, and are variously pinnatifid, pin- 

 nate, or ternately decompound, the sterile 

 and fertile branches toeing always separate, 

 and the spore-cases ranged in two rows on 

 the ultimate divisions of the latter. The 

 genus, which consists of about a dozen 

 species, is found in all parts of the world 

 excepting Africa, and extends from the 

 tropical to the arctic regions, and over both 

 the eastern and western hemispheres. 

 The common British species, B. Lunaria, 

 called Moonwort, is a dwarf fleshy-looking 

 plant, having the sterile branch pinnate 

 with lunate leaflets, and the fertile branch 

 panicled with sessile distinct globular 

 spore-cases. B. simplex is a smaller and 

 less divided plant found in North America 

 and the north of Europe. Another species, 

 B. virginicum, of which somewhat varied 

 forms are found in North and South 

 America and in India, is much larger in size 

 and more compound in structure than 

 either of the foregoing ; the sterile branch 

 being ternate_, then bipinnatifld, with the 

 segments again inciso-pinnatifld, and the 

 fertile branch larger and bipinnate or tri- 

 pinnate. [T. MJ 



BOTRYDIUM. A genus of green-spored 

 Algce toelonging to the division Siphonei, 

 in which it is remarkable for the predomi- 

 nance of the large capsule over the vege- 

 tative part, which consists only of a few 

 threads, that like roots penetrate the 

 soil, the capsules being the only part exter- 

 nally visible. B. granulatum occurs in 



