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<£{)£ Crca^uro at tetany. 



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employed in ornamental gardening, par- 

 ticularly for the formation of geometric 

 designs. The kind commonly used for the 

 edges of flower beds is merely a dwarf 

 variety of the common species. 



The Minorca Box, B. balearica, is a na- 

 tive of several of the Mediterranean islands 

 and of Asia Minor. It is a larger tree than 

 the last, growing sometimes as high as 

 sixty or eighty feet, with a straight smooth 

 trunk ; the leaves also are of a much paler 

 | green than those of the common box, and 

 much larger, being about three inches long 

 and of an elliptical shape. The wood much 

 resembles that of the common box, but is 

 said to have a coarser grain; it no doubt 

 forms part of the wood' exported from 

 Constantinople and Smyrna. [A. S.] 



BYBLIS. A genus of Droseracce contain- 

 ing Australian herbs resembling sundews 

 (Drosera). They have very short stems, 

 and tufts of linear leaves, with revolute 

 margins. Tne peduncles are axillary, one- 

 flowered ; sepals and petals five each, 

 the latter blue ; stamens Ave ; style simple. 

 The capsule, which is obcordate, ventri- 

 cose and two-celled, contains but few 

 seeds. [J. T. S.] 



BYRSANTHES. One of the genera of the 

 order Lobeliacece. Calyx tube adnate to the 

 ovary, its limb flve-parted ; corolla funnel- 

 shaped, leathery (hence the name Leather- 

 flower;, its limb flve-parted, with erect equal 

 segments; stamens Ave, inserted with the 

 corolla on to the tube of the calyx, the an- 

 thers coherent in a tube, some or all of them 

 hairy at the top. Ovary two-celled, contain- 

 ing several ovules, adhering to the two- 

 lobed placenta; ; style not projecting from 

 the flower; stigma two-lobed, the lobes 

 spreading, roundish, hairy. Shrubs inhabits 

 ing the Andes, covered with snow-white 

 hairs ; flowers stalked. [M. T. M .] 



BYRSONTMA An extensive genus of 

 plants belonging to the order of malpig- 

 hiads (Malpighiacece),aii& containing about 

 eighty species, inhabitants of Tropical 

 America. They form shrubs or small trees, 

 seldom exceeding thirty or forty feet in j 

 height, and have opposite entire leaves, 

 destitute of the glands common to those of j 

 allied genera. Their flowers are produced 

 in racemes at the ends of the branches, 

 and are generally of a yellow colour; the ] 

 calyx has ten glands or wart-like swellings, i 

 two at the base of each sepal; their ten 

 stamens are connected together by a ring j 

 at the base, and they have three distinct 

 styles terminated by pointed stigmas. Their 

 fruit has a fleshy pulp surrounding a hard 

 three-celled stone, containing three seeds, j 



B. Cumingiana is common in New Gre- j 

 nada, Panama, and Yeraguas, forming a | 

 small tree about twenty-five or thirty feet j 

 high. Its leaves are lance-shaped, about \ 

 three inches long and an inch and a half 

 wide, the widest part being at the top end ; 

 both their upper and under surfaces, but 

 particularly the latter, are covered with a 

 thick coating of light brown woolly scurf, 

 which gives them a rather dull appearance, i 



I The racemes of flowers are about six inches 

 | long, and being of a deep yellow colour, 

 give the tree a fine effect when in full 

 j flower. In Panama it is called Nanci, and 

 I the inhabitants consider the bark an efBca- 

 I cious remedy in certain skin diseases com- 

 mon in that country ; they likewise use the 

 wood for building purposes, and eat the 

 small acid berries. 



B. crassifolia is a native of the "West 

 Indies and the Northern part of South 

 America, where it forms a small tree about 

 fifteen feet high. It has oval leaves about 

 four inches long and two broad, smooth 

 upon the upper surface, and covered with 

 brownish silky down underneath. The bark 

 possesses astringent properties, and is used 

 for tanning leather ; it is also said to be 

 useful as a medicine, a decoction being 

 employed as an antidote to the bite of the 

 rattlesnake ; and in Cayenne it is employed 

 as a febrifuge. The Carib Indians call the 

 plant Moulae-ie, and use its bark for paint- 

 ing their paddles and arrow-heads. 



B. spicata is a tree thirty or forty feet 

 high, growing in some of the West India 

 Islands and in Brazil. It has lance-shaped 

 blunt-pointed leaves about four or five 

 inches long and an inch and a half broad, 

 of a shining green upon the upper side and 

 a dull rusty brown colour beneath. The 

 bark of this, as indeed of all the species of 

 the genus, is very astringent, and is com- 

 monly used by the Brazilian tanners, under 

 the name of Muruxi bark ; it also contains 

 a colouring matter, and is used by the 

 Indians for dyeing their garments red. 

 The yellow acid berries of this plant are 

 very good eating when ripe, but rather 

 astringent; they are considered to act 

 beneficially in cases of dysentery. 



B. verbascifolia is a small shrub with a 

 short thick knotty stem, the wood of which 

 is of a bright red colour. Its leaves are 

 about ten inches long and of an obovate 

 shape, i.e. having the top half broader than 

 the bottom ; they are generally woolly on 

 both sides, and a microscopical examina- 

 tion of the hairs of this and other species 

 will show them to be centrally attached. 

 In Brazil and Guiana, where this plant 

 grows, a decoction of the roots and bran- 

 ches is used for washing ulcers, and is con- 

 sidered to possess healing properties. [A.S.] 



BYSSACEOUS. Composed of fine en- 

 tangled threads. 



BYSSI. A name which formerly included 

 a heterogeneous mass of perfect and im- 

 perfect plants of various affinities, but is 

 now exploded, the term byssoid alone 

 being retained to express a peculiar fringed 

 structure in which the threads or fascicles 

 of threads are of unequal lengths . [M. J.B.] 



BYSSUS. The stipe of certain fungals. 



BYTTNERIACE.E. {Bilttnerim; Byttne- 

 riads, the Chocolate family.) A natural 

 order of thalamifloral dicotyledons belong- 

 ing to Lindley's malval alliance. Trees, 

 shrubs, or undershrubs with simple leaves 

 and deciduous stipules. Calyx four to flve- 

 lobed, valvate in bud. Corolla consisting 



