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and deeply trifld. The flowers are on short 

 pedicels, with two bracts. The calyx is 

 tubular at the base, and has four long 

 leafy divisions of the limb. The upper lip 

 of the corolla is acuminate. The stamens 

 are didynamous, hid under the upper lip, 

 and have two equal mucronate cells. The 

 style has a capitate stigmatose apex. The 

 ovoid capsule dehisces loculicidally, and 

 contains few largish seeds. This genus is 

 very near to Cymbaria, from which, how- 

 ever, it is separated by its four leafy 

 segments of the calyx, and its acuminate 

 galea. From Rhinanthus, to which it was 

 formerly referred, it differs in possessing 

 two bracteoles under the calyx. [W. C] 



BTJNIAS. A genus of Cruciferce ; herbs 

 from central Europe, the Mediterranean 

 region, and temperate Asia, having erect 

 branched stems, entire or pinnatifld, often 

 runcinate leaves, and elongated racemes of 

 rather small yellow flowers, on short spread- 

 ing pedicels. Pouch resembling a small 

 four-sided ovoid pyramidal nut.of ten tuber- 

 culated or muricated, indehiscent two- 

 celled ; cells two-seeded ; embryo with the 

 cotyledons rolled up on themselves, which 

 distinguishes the genus from all except 

 Erucaria, which has a jointed pod breaking 

 across into two segments. [J. T. SJ 



BUNTTTM. The five and twenty species 

 composing this genus of tuberous-rooted 

 umbelliferous plants (Apiacecv) are chiefly 

 inhabitants of Southern Europe and West- 

 ern Asia. They are small herbaceous 

 plants, seldom more than two feet high, 

 and have very finely-cut leaves. Their 

 flowers are white, and borne in compound 

 umbels, generally destitute of an invo- 

 lucre, but occasionally with a few small 

 bracts. The technical characters of this 

 genus and its allies are derived from the 

 fruit : in the present it is slightly flattened 

 on two sides, and drawn in at the top, ter- 

 minating in two straight styles ; each half 

 of the fruit having five indistinctly marked 

 longitudinal ribs, with several oil cells be- 

 tween them. 



B. flexuosmn is a native of Western 

 Europe, but is found wild in Britain. This 

 grows erect about a foot or more high, with 

 a few branches towards the top. Its leaves 

 areveryfewin number, and very finely divi- 

 ded and sub-divided into numerous slender 

 narrow divisions — those on the upper part 

 of the stem having much finer divisions 

 than the lower ones. The round tuberous 

 roots of this plant have a sweetish aro- 

 matic taste, mingled with a considerable 

 amount of acridity, which renders them 

 unpleasant eating while raw, although 

 they are often eaten in that state by 

 children ; but when boiled or roasted, 

 they are very palatable, much resembling 

 the chestnut in taste — hence one of the 

 common names for them is Earth-chest- 

 nuts; they are also called Pig-nuts, Ar- 

 nuts, Jur-nuts, Tur-nuts, Kipper-nuts, &c. 



B. ferulcefolium, which grows in the is- 

 lands of Cyprus and Candia, produces 

 tubers as large as filberts, which are eaten 



by the Greeks under the name of Topana. 

 It has branching stems about a foot in 

 height, and leaves primarily divided into 

 three divisions, each of which are then sub- 

 divided into three leaflets. [A. S.] 



BUN-OCHRO. An Indian name for 

 Urena lobata. 



BUNT. The common name of TiUetia 

 caries, a parasitic fungus belonging to the 

 section Coniomycetes. TiUetia differs from 

 other genera of the group Ustilaginei in 

 the perfectly globose spores having a cel- 

 lular outer coat. These are at first de- 

 veloped from the ultimate branchlets of a 

 very delicate web which at length com- 

 pletely vanishes, so that the inside of the 

 seed in which they grow contains nothing 

 but a mass of spores. These are held 

 together for a long time in consequence of 

 the toughness of the outer coat of the 

 seed in which they grow, and accordingly 

 the bunted grains are carried home with 

 the rest of the produce, so that when the 

 grain is threshed the spores of the bunt are 

 •dispersed, and many of them adhere to 

 the seedcorn, ready to germinatewhen the 

 seed is sown. The first thread protruded 

 by the spores is thick and coarse, so that it 

 cannot penetrate the tissues of the sprout- 

 ing grain ; but a tuft of far more delicate 

 threads soon crowns its apex, and after 

 becoming united with each other by means 

 of little lateral processes, they produce 

 secondary spores, which in their turn 

 germinate. As the wheat crop often 

 suffers seriously from bunt, many measures 

 are adopted by the farmer to kill the bunt- 

 spores. Arsenic and corrosive sublimate 

 are ineligible because the grain, if not 

 sown at once, is apt to lose its power of 

 vegetating; sulphate of copper has not 

 the same inconvenience, and is much used, 

 as is also quicklime slacked with boiling 

 water. The best practise is perhaps that 

 pursued in some parts of France. The 

 wheat is thoroughly wetted with a strong 

 solution of Glauber's salts (sulphate of 

 soda), and then dusted with quicklime. The 

 effect of this is to set the caustic alkali 

 free, while the sulphur and lime combine to 

 form gypsum. Bunt scarcely occurs in bar- 

 ley, but it has been found in Algierson Hor- 

 deum murale. The only other species of 

 TiUetia occurs on Sorghum. [M. J. B.] 



BUPHANE. A small group of amaryl- 

 lids, remarkable in having precocious 

 flower-scapes, supporting from 100 to 200 

 or more flowers in a single head. The 

 | flowers have a straight cylindrical tube 

 [ and a regular six-parted expanded limb, 

 their filaments being erect and distinct 

 from the tube. The capsule which suc- 

 ceeds them is turbinate and dry, three- 

 valved, with numerous distinct ovules. 

 Only four species are referred to the 

 genus by Herbert, and these are all South 

 African. The peduncles, which are at 

 first crowded and suberect, diverge so as 

 to form a spherical head, the flowers of 

 which are smaller than in the closely- 

 ailied Arumocharis. B. toxicaria is called 



