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410 BEETLE. 
analysis, the quantity of juice obtained on an 
average is about 66 per cent. with 34 per cent. 
pulp, and the amount of sugar about 5 per cent. 
of the weight of the root. 
The following is the ordinary process of ex- 
tracting the sugar from this plant :—The roots 
are reduced to a pulp by pressing them between 
two rough cylinders; the pulp is then put into 
bags, and the sap it contains is pressed out. The 
liquor is then boiled, and the saccharine matter 
precipitated by quicklime ; the liquor is now 
poured off, and to the residuum is added a solu- 
tion of sulphuric acid, and again boiled ; the lime 
uniting with the acid, is got rid of by straining ; 
and the liquor is then gently evaporated, or left 
to granulate slowly, after which it is ready for 
undergoing the common process of refining raw 
sugars. The French manufacturers have acquired 
so much experience in this process, that, from 
every 100 lbs. of beet, they extract 12 lbs. of sugar 
in the short space of twelve hours. The total 
quantity of beet root sugar manufactured in 
France in the year 1845-6 amounted to 39,403,754 
_ kilogrammes, or nearly 40,000 tons. 
BEETLE. A hand wooden implement, of the 
nature of a mallet, very various in size, form, and 
uses. A small one-handed beetle is used for beat- 
ing clothes; a larger one-handed beetle is used 
by cottage-farmers, as a substitute for a roller, 
for pulverizing the clods of loamy and clayey 
soils; and a still larger beetle, with one, two, or 
more handles, is used for splitting wood, and 
driving wedges and hedge-stakes. . 
BEETLE. A very extensive and interesting 
order of insects. It includes the turnip-fly, and 
the wood-eating insects of all the weevils, and 
possesses, in consequence, an intense though dis- 
astrous interest for the gardener and the farmer. 
Upwards of 3,500 British species of beetles have 
been described by entomologists ; about 30,000 
Species are contained in the French museums; 
about 20,000 species, not included in the French 
collections, are supposed to be contained in the 
museums of other countries; and from 50,000 to 
100,000 species are conjectured, from analogies 
|| of climate, to exist in regions of the world which 
have not yet been scientifically explored. This 
great multitudinousness of the beetles, their won- 
derful variety of form, the frequent richness and 
diversity of their colouring, their numerous modi- 
fications of external organization, their general 
superiority in size to insects of other orders, the 
ease with which they are preserved, and the vast 
amount of their depredations upon the vegetable 
world, have occasioned them to be more exten- 
_ sively and enthusiastically investigated than any 
| other order of insects. 
The beetles are coextensive with the order 
Coleoptera. Their body consists of, first, the head; 
next, a large segment usually called the thorax ; 
next, two short segments called the mesothorax 
and the metathorax, which support the wing- 
_ covers and wings, and the two posterior pairs of 
BEGONIA. 
legs; and, lastly, a series of rings, composing the 
abdomen, and unfurnished with organs of loco- 
motion. The head is usually roundish, and is 
provided with a pair of antennz; but the latter 
are of very various form in the different groups 
and genera. The eyes are composite and facetted. 
The mouth consists of a labrum or upper lip, a 
pair of mandibles or horny upper jaws, a pair of 
maxillee or less firm lower jaws, provided with a 
palpus or feeler, and a labium or lower lip, fur- 
nished with a pair of feelers, and implanted on a | 
broad horny mentum or chin. The upper end 
of the abdomen is attached by its entire breadth 
to the mesothorax ; and its upper surface, in 
consequence of being defended by the wing- 
covers, is usually of less solid consistence than 
the under surface. The grand characteristic of 
the order, however, is its having two membran- 
aceous wings, folded transversely beneath two 
horny elytra or hard parchment-like sheaths. 
The elytra form by their union, when closed, a 
longitudinal suture; they defend the insect, by 
their hardness and horniness, from the injurious 
effects of abrasion while it is piercing earth or 
wood for food or shelter; and they constitute 
the character which gives the order its scientific 
name, 
The larva of a beetle resembles a soft fleshy 
worm, and possesses so far a degree of identity 
with the perfect insect, as, in technical phrase, 
to render the metamorphosis of the insect incom- 
plete. The head and the upper surface of the 
thorax are scaly; and six legs are attached in 
pairs to the three anterior segments of the body. 
Nearly all the parts of the mouth of the perfect | 
insect are exhibited, in a comparatively undevel- | 
oped manner, in the head of the larva; but, in 
consequence of the greatest supply of nourish- 
ment being taken by the insect in its larva state, 
the jaws are the parts of the mouth most fully 
developed. Such species of larvee as he most in- | 
active and concealed have the closest resem- 
blance to worms or grubs; such as are carnivor- 
ous are, in general, the most inert ; and the larvee 
of the group called rove-beetles, exhibit the near- 
est resemblance to the perfect insects, or undergo 
the lowest degree of metamorphosis. 
BEEVES. Oxen or black cattle. 
beeves is properly the plural of beef. 
BEGGAR’S NEEDLE. SeeSuHEepyHerp’s NEEDLe. 
BEGONIA. A numerous genus of beautiful 
endogenous plants, forming an order of itself, and 
nearly allied to the polygonum and gourd fami- 
lies. Five species were introduced to Great Bri- 
tain during the last three decades of last century; 
and nearly fifty species have been introduced 
since the commencement of the present century, 
and a large proportion of these during the last 
twenty years. All are natives of the tropics; 
and considerably more than one-half belong to 
the wettest tropical districts of America and the 
West Indies. All are eminently ornamental; 
and several have already become so extensively 
The word 
