173 



Cfje Creagurg of 23ntattg. 



[BRUG 



the system of that great botanist. The 

 planes of this genus are natives of tropical 

 America, usually of erect habit, smooth, 

 or hairy and viscid ; the leaves alternate, 

 stalked, ovate in outline; the flowers 

 violet or blue, more rarely white. Their 

 handsome flowers and easy cultivation 

 render them favourite objects of culture. 

 B. data, an upright-growing species, and 

 B. demissa, of more spreading habit, have 

 been long in cultivation ; the latter is a 

 native of Panama, and has the leaves 

 oblong-ovate, oblique at the base, the 

 branches and flower-stalks downy, the 

 corolla pure pale blue, tending to purple or 

 I red : sometimes all three colours are as- 

 i sociated on the same plant. [G. D.] 



BROWNEA. A genus of small ever- 

 green trees belonging to the Leguminosce 

 I and to that section having regular corol- 

 las. The species are peculiar to Vene- 

 zuela, New Grenada, and some portions of 

 j central America, one of them being also 

 i found in Trinidad. The leaves are alter- 

 ! nate, equally pinnate, and from one to one 

 and a-half foot long, with from four to 

 twelve pairs of entire leaflets. The flowers 

 are rose-coloured or crimson, and disposed 

 in dense terminal or axillary sessile heads. 

 The pods are compressed cimiter-shaped, 

 I often covered with rusty pubescence, and 

 1 contain many seeds. It would be difficult 

 to point out a more beautiful genus of 

 stove-plants than this, and few tropical 

 plant-houses of any pretensions are with- 

 out some of them. B. grandiceps has long 

 pinnate leaves with about twelve pairs of 

 leaflets and axillaryor terminal flower-heads 

 eight inches in diameter; the flowers are 

 | pink, very numerous, and arranged in tiers 

 I as it were round a conical axis, the outer 

 ! ones expanding first, followed by the 

 I others until all are open, when the flower- 

 j head is not unlike that of a Rhododendron. 

 The leaves' droop during the day so as 

 almost to hide the flowers from view ; but 

 they have been seen to rise up in the 

 evening and remain erect all the night; 

 the flowers are thus exposed to the falling 

 | dew, but the leaves drooping again during 

 the day, protect the flowers from the 

 heat of the sun. This species is a native 

 of Venezuela, where it is called Rosa del 

 Monte or Palo de Cruz, and was introduced 

 to England in 1823. Altogether there are 

 six species in cultivation, some of them 

 with bright scarlet flowers, as in B. coc- 

 cin<y. which was the first known in our 

 gardens. The genus is named in honour 

 of Patrick Brown, who wrote a history of 

 Jamaica. [A. A. B.] 



BR0VTN7AX MOTION. A phenomenon 

 sometimes called molecular motion, which 

 occurs in minute particles, both of vege- 

 table and mineral origin, consisting in a 

 < rapid whirling motion, the nature of 

 I which is obscure, but is certainly indepen- 

 dent of evaporation or other appreciable 

 external causes which produce motion in 

 minute bodies. It may be seen admirably 

 in a weak solutioa of gamboge, with a 



power of 250 linear. It is frequently 

 observed in the minute anatomy of vege- 

 tables, especially when the tissues are 

 diseased. [M. J. B.] 



BROWNLOWIA. A genus of the lime- 

 tree family. B. elata, a native of Chittagong 

 in Burmah, is the only known species, and 

 attains a great size, full grown trees being 

 about fifteen feet in circumference at four 

 feet from the ground ; the branches are 

 numerous and spreading, forming a large 

 ovate shady head, and the leaves, like those 

 of the lime-tree in form, are entire, five 

 to seven-nerved, and often a foot in length 

 and eight inches broad. The flowers are 

 in terminal panicles, very numerous and 

 showy, white or pale yellow in colour. The 

 fruit is made up of five baccate carpels, 

 each containing one seed. [A. A. B.J 



BROWN RED. Dull red, with a slight 

 mixture of brown. 



BRUCEA. A genus of Simarubacece, so 

 called in honour of the famous Abyssinian 

 traveller. It consists of shrubs with 

 compound leaves ; flowers in heads, uni- 

 sexual or sometimes hermaphrodite; parts 

 of the flower in fours ; stamens attached to 

 a central gland-like four-lobed gynophore 

 or stalk supporting the four drupes. The 

 stamens are sterile in the female flowers. 

 The species are natives of Abyssinia, 

 China, &c, and some of them possess 

 bitter properties similar to quassia, a drug 

 furnished by a tree of the same natural 

 order. Some of the species are cultivated 

 as stove shrubs. [M. T. M .] 



BRUEA. A genus of Artocarpaceos, 

 comprising a shrub with alternate some- 

 what heart-shaped serrated woolly leaves, 

 and having leafy bracts, and terminal 

 stalked dioecious flowers. Calyx tubular, 

 irregularly four-toothed; ovary oblique; 

 stigma lateral, sessile, very long, fringed ; 

 fruit hairy. Native of Bengal. [M. T. M.] 



BRUGMANSIA. The name of a genus 

 of Solanacece, or of one which was for- 

 merly included in that order, but which 

 has been separated by Miers, under the 

 name Atropacece. The species were for- 

 merly comprised under the genus Datura, 

 as there is a close resemblance in the 

 flowers ; but these plants are shrubs, and 

 their fruit is smooth, not spiny, and con- 

 tains but two cells. B. suaveolens is a well- 

 known ornament of our greenhouses, with 

 its large fragrant tubular white blossoms, 

 which are sometimes produced in great 

 profusion ; it is perhaps better known under 

 its old name of Batura arborea, Other 

 species with orange and red flowers are in 

 cultivation. All are natives of Peru and 

 the adjacent districts of South America. 

 Their seeds are dangerous stimulating nar- 

 cotics. 



The name Brugmamsia is also applied to a 

 genus of plants parasitical, in Java, on the 

 roots of certain species of Cissus. They 

 consist of little else but flowers, which are 

 of the size of the fist, hermaphrodite, with 

 a whitish perianth, which is two or three- 



