■WM 
BEL 
four-lobed margin surrounding the style ; 
capsule two-celled, many-seeded. One spe- 
cies, found at Cayenne. 
BELLES lettres, generally considered as 
synonymous with polite literature ; they in- 
clude the origin and structure of the various 
Linds of language ; of grammar, universal 
and particular, criticism, rhetoric; history 
in its several departments, and all the diffe- 
rent kinds of poetry. Different authors have 
included different departments of literature 
under this general term. The reader may 
be referred to Blair’s Lectures, as including 
almost every tiring that is necessary for a 
student to be informed of on the subject. 
See Criticism, Grammar, Poetry, Rhe- 
toric, &c. 
BELLIS, in botany, common daisy, a 
genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Super- 
flua class and order. Natural order of Com- 
posite© Discoillese. Corymbifera ; Jussieu. 
Essential character, calyx hemispheric, with 
equal scales ; seeds ovate, with no down ; 
receptacle naked, conical.There are only two 
species, with many varieties ; viz. B. pe- 
rennis, or common daisy, is sufficiently dis- 
tinguished by its perennial root, is a native 
of most parts of Europe in pastures ; flow- 
ers almost all the year, and shuts up close 
every night, and in wet weather. The 
taste of the leaves is somewhat acrid: in 
some countries, however, it is used as a 
pot-herb. The roots have a penetrating 
pungency. It is ungrateful to cattle, and 
even to geese ; it occupies therefore a large 
share of pasture lands, to the exclusion of 
grass and profitable herbs. B. annua is a 
low plant, seldom rising more than three 
inches high, with an upright stalk, having 
leaves on the lower part, but the upper 
part naked, and supporting a single flower 
like that of the common daisy, though 
smaller. Native of Sicily, Spain, about 
Montpellier, Verona, and Nice. 
BELLIUM, in botany, a genus of the 
Syngenisia Polygamia Superflua class and 
order. Natural order of Composite Discoi- 
deae. Corymbiferas, Jussieu. Essential cha- 
racter, calyx with equal leaflets; seeds co- 
nic, with a chaffy eight-leaved crown, and 
awned down ; receptacle naked. There are 
only two species, viz. B. bellidioides, has 
the habit of the daisy, though it differs es- 
sentially from it in having a down to the 
seed. Native of Italy about Rome, and in 
the island of Majorca. B. minutum, is one 
of the smallest of plants. This plant, ex- 
amined with a glass, appears to have hairs 
scattered over it. Native of the Levant. 
BEL 
BELLONIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of Pierre Belon, a famous French 
physician, a genus of the Pentandria Mo- 
nogynia class and order. Natural order of 
Rubiaceae, Jussieu. Essential character 
corolla wheel-shaped; capsule one-celled’ 
inferior, many-seeded, beaked with the ca- 
lyx. There are but two species, viz. B. as- 
pera, is a shrub ten or twelve feet in height, 
sending out many lateral branches; flowers 
in loose corymbs. This species is yet little 
known, and, according to Swartz, has been 
seen only by Plumier. It is very common 
in several warm islands in America. 
BELLOWS, a machine so contrived as 
to agitate the air with great briskness, ex- 
piring and inspiring it by turns, and that 
only from enlarging and contracting its ca- 
pacity. 
This machine is used in chambers and 
kitchens, in forges, furnaces, and founde- 
ries, to blow up the fire ; it serves also for 
organs and other pneumatic instruments, to 
give them a proper degree of air. Ail 
these are of various constructions, ac- 
cording to their different purposes, but 
in general they are composed of two flat 
boards, sometimes of an oval, sometimes 
of a triangular figure. Two or more 
hoops, bent according to the figure of the 
boards, are placed between them ; a piece 
ot leather, broad in the middle, and narrow 
at both ends, is nailed on the edges of the. 
boards, whicji it thus unites together : as 
also on the hoops which separate the boards, 
that the leather may the easier open and 
fold again ; a tube of iron, brass, or cop- 
per is fastened to the undermost board, and 
there is a valve within that covers the 
holes in the underboard, to keep in the air. 
The action and effect of bellows of every 
kind, whether constructed with leather or 
wood, wrought by men, by steam, or by- 
water, depends on this, that the air which 
enters them, and which they contain when 
raised, is again compressed into a narrower 
space when they are closed. As the air 
flows to that place where it meets with the 
least resistance, it must of necessity fly out of 
the pipe with a velocity proportional to the 
force by which it is compressed, and must 
therefore blow stronger or weaker, as the 
velocity with which the top and bottom of 
the bellows meet is greater or less. The 
blast will last in proportion to the quantity 
of air that was drawn into the bellows 
through the valve. The action of the bel- 
lows bears a near affinity to that of the 
lungs, and what is called blowing in the 
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