500 HER 
BEQUEST', f. [from bequeath .] Something loft by 
will ; a legacy. 
BE'RAMS,/. A coarfe cloth, made with cotton-thread, 
which conies from the Kelt Indies, particularly from Surat. 
BKRA'ivlUN, a town of Egypt, on tire Nile : three 
miles, north-calf of Man fora. 
BE'RAU, or Barar, a province of Hindofian, bound¬ 
ed on the north by Malwo and Allahabad, on the eall by 
Orilfa, on the fouth by Hydrabad, and on the weft by the 
Candifh and Dowiatabad. This province is fertile in 
wheat, rice, poppies, and many forts of legumes. In the 
fouthern part is found the deer which yields the bezoar 
ftone. The fheep of this province are of axlifferent fpe- 
cies from the common, the neck is lengthened, the tail 
very ffiort, their ears long, and their wool is not curled. 
The principal rivers are the Ganga, Barnah, and Pouneah. 
It was formerly a kingdom, it is now divided; part of it 
is fubjedt to a rajah, and part of to the nizam, or prince 
of the Deccan. 
BERASTEGUE', a mountain of Spain, in the province 
of Guipufcoa: three legues from Tolofa. 
To BERAT'TLE, v. a. [from rattle.'] To fill with 
noife ; to make a noife at in contempt. 
BERAU'N, a town of Bohemia, and capital of a circle 
of the fame name ; fometimes called the Circle of Podverd. 
The principal produce of the circle is wood and corn : the 
Muldau and the Mies yield abundance of fifh, and in fome 
parts are found mines of iron. The town of Beraun was 
built in the year 746 ; but its opulence does not keep pace 
with its antiquity ; it is fituated on the Mies, or Miza : 
fourteen miles Couth-weft of Prague. Lat. 49.54. N. Ion. 
31.49. E. Ferro. 
BER'BE, or Bereiche, a river of South America, in 
the country of Guiana, which runs into the Atlantic, a- 
bout lat. 6. N. Ion. 59. W, Greenwich. 
BERBEC'Z, a river of European Turkey, which runs 
into the Birlet, nearTecuczi, in the province of Moldavia. 
BER'BEGAL, a town of Spain, in Arragon : three 
leagues from Balbaftro. 
BER'BERlS,yi [An Arabic name, ufed by Averrhoes, 
and the officinal writers.] The Barberry. In botany, a 
genus of the clafs hexandria, order monogynia. The ge¬ 
neric charadters are—Calyx : perianthium fix-leaved, pa¬ 
tulous ; leaflets ovate, with a narrower bafe, concave, al¬ 
ternately fmaller, coloured, deciduous. Corolla : petals 
fix, roundiffi, concave, eredf-expanding, fcarcely larger 
than the calyx; nedtary, two finall, roundiffi, coloured, 
bodies, fattened to the bafe of each petal. Stamina : fila¬ 
ments fix, eredt, comprefted, obtufe; anthene two, faf- 
tened on each fide to the top of the filaments. Piftillum : 
erm cylindric, the length of the ftamens; ftyle none; 
igma orbiculate, broader than the germ, fuirounded with 
a ffiarp edge. Pericarpium : berry cylindric, obtufe, um- 
feilicated with a point, one-celled. Seeds: two, oblong, 
cylindric, obtufe.— EJJential CharaEler. Calyx fix-leaved; 
petals fix, with two glands at the claws; ftyle none; ber¬ 
ry two-feeded. 
Species, t. Berberis vulgaris, or common barberry: 
peduncles racemed, fpines triple. The common barberry 
is a (hrub rifing to the height of eight or ten feet. The 
denis are upright and branched, fmooth and flightly groov¬ 
ed, brittle, with a large white pith, and covered with a 
whittffi or affi-coloureci bark w hich is yellow on the infide. 
Both ftems and branches are armed With fliarp thorns, 
which commonly grow by threes, Linnaeus affirms, that 
the firft leaves of the prelent year change into thefe thorns 
the next; this however is denied by others. Berries at 
firft green, but when ripe turning to a fine red colour : 
they are fuperior, of an ovate-cylmdric form, and have 
a brown pervious teat at top; the cell of the ftone is lar¬ 
ger than the feeds, and has a railed ftreak on one fide from 
the hole downwards. There are ufitally two, rarely three, 
feeds, free or loofe except at bottom, where they are fitf- 
tened to 3 very minute tubercle; they are oblong, thicker 
at top, blunt, fmooth, of a pale teftaceous colour, and 
B E R 
hard. The feed-lobes are of an elliptic form. It is a 
native of the eaftern countries, and now of nvoft parts of 
Europe, in woods, coppices, and hedges. In England, 
chiefly in a chalky foil, as particularly about Saffron Wal¬ 
den in Eifex. The flowers appear in May, and the fruit 
ripens in September. There are many varieties of this 
ffirub. The leaves of this kind are gratefully acid. The 
fniell of the flowers is offenfive when near, but pleafant at 
a certain diftance. The berries are fo very acid, that birds 
feldom touch them. The barberry however is cultivated 
for the fake of thefe, which are pickled and ufed forgar- 
nilhing difties; and, being boiled with fugar, form a mod 
agreeable rob or jelly ; they are ufed likevvife as a fweet- 
meat, and are put into fugar-plums or comfits. The roots 
boiled in lye yield a yellow Colour: and in Poland they 
dye leather of a fine yellow with the bark of the root. 
The inner bark of tire ftems alfo will dye linen of a fine 
yellowg with the afliltance of alum. Kine, ffieep, and 
goats, are faid to eat it; horfes and fvvine to refufe it. The 
fruit of the barberry is conlidered as a mild reftringent 
acid, agreeable to the ftomach, and of efficacy (like other 
vegetable acids) in hot bilious diforders, and in a putrid 
difpofition of the humours. According to Profper Alpinus, 
the Egyptians employed a diluted juice of the berries in 
ardent and peftilential fevers. Their method is to mace¬ 
rate them in about twelve times their quantity of water, 
and let them ftand for about twenty-four hours, and then 
to add a little fennel-feed. The liquor is then preffed out 
and (trained, and fweetened with fugar, or fyrup of ci¬ 
trons, roles, &c. and given plentifully as a drink. A con¬ 
crete fimilar to cream of tartar may be obtained from the 
juice, by mixing it with lemon-juice, in the proportion of 
two pounds of barberry-juice and two ounces of lemon- 
juice, and digefting them in a fand-heat for two days; 
and then gently evaporating the filtered liquor to one half, 
and fetting it in a cellar for fome days. The tartar-incruf- 
tates the (ides of the veflel, and is a.grateful medicine in 
febrile diforders. In fadt it is the eflential fait of the bar¬ 
berry. The berries of this ffirub are alfo made into an 
agreeable jelly, by boiling them with an equal weight of 
fine fugar to a proper confidence, and then draining it. The 
leaves themfelves of the barberry are acid, and have been 
.fometimes employed for nearly the fame purpofes as the 
fruit: they have alfo been ufed as an ingredient in falads. 
The inner yellow bark, which is auftere and bitterifti, has 
been fometimes ufed with fuccefs as a gentle purgative in 
the jaundice, taken in the form of a decodlion, in ale or 
other liquors. In this manner it was ufed with fuccefs by 
the celebrated Mr. Ray. Infers of various kinds are re¬ 
markably fond of the flowers of barberry. Linnaeus ob- 
ferved long fince, that., when bees in fearch of honey touch 
the filaments, the anthene approximate to the ftigma, and 
explode the pollen. Dr. Smith has given the following 
particular account of this curious phenomenon : The fta¬ 
mens of luch flowers as are open bend back to each petal, 
and (helter themfelves under their concave tips. No (bak¬ 
ing of the-branch has any efledt upon them ; but, if the 
infide of the filaments be touched with a fmall bit of (lick, 
they inrtantly fpring from the petal, and ftrike the anthera 
againft the ftigma. The outfrde of the filament has no ir¬ 
ritability, nor has the anthera it (elf any ; as may eafily be 
proved by touching either of them with a blunt needle, a 
fine bridle, a feather, or any thing which cannot injure 
tile ftrufihire of the part. If a ftatnen be bent to the ftig¬ 
ma, by means of a pair of feiflars applied to the anthera, 
no contraction in the filament is produced. From all this 
it is evident, that the fpring of the ftamens is owing to 
an high degree of irritability in the fide of the filament 
next the germ, by which, when touched, it contracts, 
that fide becomes (hotter than the other, and confequently 
the filament is bent towards the germ. This irritability is 
perceptible in ftamens of all ages; in flowers only fo far 
expanded as to admit a briftie ; and in old flowers ready 
to fall o(F. If the germ be cut oft", the filaments will (fill 
contract, and, nothing being in their way, will bend over 
