BOT 
BOS 
the dew-lap, like that of a bison ; from the 
hind part of the head to the middle of the 
back is also a loose black mane ; the tail is 
nearly naked at the base ; the remainder be- 
ing covered with long loose hair. These 
animals are found in large herds, in the de- 
sert parts beyond the Cape ; and, if met in 
the narrow parts of woods, are extremely 
dangerous, rushing suddenly on the travel- 
ler, goring and trampling both man and 
horse under foot. It is also said, that they 
will often strip off the skin of such animals 
as they have killed, by licking them with 
their rough tongues ; as recorded by some 
of the ancient authors of the bison. 
BOSCIA, in botany, a genus of the Te- 
trandria Trigynia class and order. Calyx 
four-toothed ; corolla four-petalled ; cap- 
sule four-celled. One species found at the 
Cape. 
BOSEA, in botany, from Bose, a senator 
of Leipsic, a genus of the Pentandria Digy- 
nia class and order. Essential character : 
calyx five-leaved; corolla none; berry one- 
seeded. There is but one species, viz. B. 
yervamora, golden rod tree, is a strong 
woody shrub, with a stem as large as a man’s 
leg, the branches come out very irregularly, 
and make considerable shoots in summer ; 
these branches retain their leaves till spring, 
when they fall off and new leaves are pro- 
duced soon after. It is a native of the Ca- 
nary islands, and is also found in some of the 
West India islands. 
BOSSI/EA, in botany, a genus of the 
Diadelphia Decandria : calyx two-lipped, 
the upper lip inversely heart shaped ; ban- 
ner with two glands at the base ; keel of 
two petals ; legume pedicelled, compressed, 
many-seeded. One species, a native of 
New Holland. 
BOSTRICHUS, in natural history, a ge- 
nus of insects of the order Coleoptera : an- 
tenna; clavate, the club solid ; thorax con- 
vex, slightly margined ; head inflected and 
hid under the thorax. There are about 30 
species. They are a very fertile and vo- 
racious tribe, and destructive to woods, 
making those deep irregular channels, so 
often observable in the bark and wood of 
trees. They are found chiefly in Europe 
and America. 
BOTANY, is that science which teaches 
a knowledge of the vegetable kingdom, as 
its name, derived from /Way;;, an herb or 
grass, expresses. This word may be easily 
traced to its primitive /Sow, or /3 omu, to 
feed, and since plants have ever been re- 
garded as the food of a large portion of ani- 
mals, the aptness of its derivation is appa- 
rent. This study, in its most limited sense, 
includes the practical discrimination, me- 
thodical arrangement, and systematical no- 
menclature of vegetables ; while in a more 
enlarged view, it comprises the anatomy 
and functions of their several parts, together 
with the various qualities and uses which 
render them serviceable either to mankind 
or the brute creation. In this respect bo- 
tany may be considered as a vast and al- 
most boundless study ; nor is the merely 
systematical department of botany, or na- 
tural history in general, when cultivated 
on philosophical principles, inferior to any 
other Science, in extent or utility, as an 
exercise for the discriminative powers of 
the mind. The necessity of a regular me- 
thod of classification, which is calculated 
to arrange and dispose the whole vegeta- 
ble kingdom, cannot be doubted, since the 
most experienced and intelligent botanists 
of the present day have scarcely been able 
to reckon, within ten thousand, how many 
species of plants there may be in the world. 
An attention to the vegetables on all 
sides spread around him, must have been 
one of the earliest occupations of man in a 
state of nature ; and this attention was 
doubtless quickened to a further contem- 
plation of their beauty and utility when it 
was discovered, that independently of af- 
fording gratification to the senses, some 
were provided as an aliment for the body, 
and that others contained a soothing balm 
for corporeal sufferings. Hence we may 
infer, that the study of plants has, through 
every age and in every clime, excited the 
attention of mankind; yet it is truly re- 
marked by a late elegant writer, Dr. Bui- 
teney, that, “in the enlightened ages of 
Greece and Rome, and under the most 
flourishing state of Arabian literature, bo- 
tany, as a science, had no existence. Nor 
was it till some time after the revival of 
learning, that those combinations and dis- 
tinctions were effectually discovered, which 
in the end, by giving rise to system, have 
raised the study of plants to that rank it 
holds at present in the scale of knowledge.” 
In the early history of Britain, we find 
that herbs were cultivated and studied with 
considerable assiduity by the Druids, who 
applied this knowledge with much effect 
to the purposes of superstition as well as 
medicine, and thus appropriated to them- 
selves the offices both of priests and phy- 
