BIENNIALS. 



28 



BILLARDIEBA. 



of Europe, North America and Nepal, 

 several of the species of which are very 

 ornamental for their flowers, and also 

 for their fruit. B. vulgaris, the 

 common Berberry, is a most elegant 

 plant when trained to a single stem, 

 and then allowed to expand its head 

 freely on every side: so treated the 

 branches become drooping, and have a 

 fine effect every spring, when they are 

 covered with their rich yellow blos- 

 soms ; and in autumn, from their 

 long red fruit, which at a distance 

 might be mistaken for the flowers of 

 a scarlet Fuchsia. B. aristhta, with 

 splendid bright yellow flowers, is 

 a robust species, with purplish fruit. 

 B. asiatica, is less robust, but also a 

 very free flowerer. All the species are 

 quite hardy, thriving in any common 

 soil, and easily propagated by ripened 

 cuttings, layers, suckers, or seeds. 

 (See Mahonia.) 



Berberry. — See Berberis. 

 Bergamote. — A kind of mint. 

 See Mentha. 



Beto'nica. — Labiates. — Betony. 

 Herbaceous plants, natives of Europe, 

 of which one species, B. incana, H. K., 

 is very ornamental, and particularly 

 adapted for rock- work or pot culture ; 

 or for covering the entire surface of 

 a bed in a flower-garden. The flowers 

 are flesh-coloured, in spikes, and the 

 whole plant does not exceed 6 inches 

 in height. Common soil and suckers. 



Bidens. — Composifoe. — The Bur 

 Marigold. Annual and perennial 

 plants, principally natives of England 

 and North America, of which B. 

 grandiflora, with fragrant yellow 

 flowers, and B. striata with white 

 flowers, are perhaps the most orna- 

 mental. They are both hardy an- 

 nuals, which only require sowing in 

 the open ground in April. 



Biennials. — Plants that do not 

 produce their flowers till the second 

 year, and then die after they have 

 ripened their seeds. The Brompton 



stocks, hollyhocks, Avallflowers, snap- 

 dragons, and Canterbury bells, are 

 biennials, though the latter four fre- 

 quently live three or four years. 

 Biennials should be sown in March 

 or April, thinned out in May, and 

 transplanted in September to the 

 place w here they are to flower the en- 

 suing year. A little earth should be 

 taken up with the roots, when they 

 are transplanted, and they should be 

 well watered, and shaded for a day 

 or two, till their roots are established. 

 Those kinds which require a peculiar 

 soil, should have pits prepared for 

 them about a week before they are 

 transplanted, that the earth may have 

 time to settle. 



Bignonia. — Bignoniacece. — The 

 Bignonias or trumpet-flowers once 

 formed a very large and splendid 

 genus, chiefly of climbers from tro- 

 pical countries, and remarkable for 

 their large, brilliant-coloured flowers. 

 Many of the species have, however, 

 been now removed to the genera 

 Tecoma and Spathodea. Most of 

 the plants which are still called Big- 

 nonia require the hothouse, but some 

 will thrive in the greenhouse, and one, 

 B. capreolata, is hardy. B. venusta 

 is one of the handsomest hothouse 

 species, and when plauted in the free 

 soil, it will produce its pale orange 

 flowers during the greater part of the 

 summer. They are all of easy culture, 

 requiring chiefly abundance of room, 

 and cuttings of them all root readily 

 in sand. (See Tecoma.) 



Bilberry. See Vaccinum. 



Bill, or Handbill. — A curved 

 blade fixed in a wooden handle ; if 

 short, it is called a hand-bill, and if 

 long, a hedge or pruning bill, and it is 

 used for cutting hedges, or pruning off 

 the branches of trees. (See Hedgebill.) 



Billardiera — Pittosporea. — 

 Appleberry. Climbing half hardy 

 shrubs, natives of Australia, with bell- 

 shaped flowers, and long berry -like 



