414 BELT. 
BELT. A stripe or compound line of trees, 
planted for the purposes of shelter or ornament. 
A narrow belt, not more than a few yards wide, 
or such as does not shut out the exterior land- 
scape, is usually very deficient in both beauty 
and utility; but a broad belt, while occupying 
more ground and occasioning more original ex- 
pense, is far more than proportionably better, at 
once in improving the climate, embellishing the 
landscape, and yielding ulterior profit. See the 
article PLANTATION. 
BENJAMIN-TREE. Any tree which is sup- 
posed to abound in benzoic acid, or to yield the 
gum benzoin of commerce. The name benjamin- 
| tree is a popular corruption of benzoin-tree ; and, 
besides having a looseand somewhat general mean- 
ing, is fixedly applied to three plants of respec- 
tively the laurel, the storax, and the fig-tree 
genera. 
The laurel benjamin-tree, Laurus benzoin, is 
the one which has longest borne the name; and 
was at one time, though very erroneously, sup- 
posed to exude all the benzoin which found its 
way to the shops of druggists. It is a hardy, 
deciduous shrub, of usually about 8 feet in ex- 
treme height ; and it is a native of North Amer- 
ica, and was introduced to Great Britain in the 
last quarter of the 17th century. It grows to 
rather a large size, and has a greater number of 
branches than the deciduous bay; its branches’ 
are smooth, and of a fine light green colour ; its 
leaves are acutely oval, nearly four inches in 
length and two in breadth, their upper surface 
smooth and light green, their under surface ven- 
ose and whitish, and, when bruised, they emit a 
fine fragrance ; and its flowers are small, yellow- 
ish green, and inconspicuous, coming out in little 
clusters from the sides of the branches, and 
blooming in April and May. This plant falsely 
ranks as medicinal, but deserves attention as an 
| ornamental shrub. 
The storax benjamin-tree, Styrax benzoin, is a 
| native of the Hast Indian Islands, and particularly 
abounds in Sumatra. It is a moderately-sized 
tree; and is now supposed by most writers to 
yield all or at least most of the benzoin of com- 
merce. Its stem is much ramified, and is never 
used for timber; its branches are round, and 
covered with a whitish downy bark; its leaves 
are alternate, oblong, and entire, smooth above, 
woolly below, and yield a strong turpentine 
odour ; and its flowers are produced in com- 
pound axillary clusters, nearly as long as the 
leaves. This tree yields benzoin through artificial 
incisions in the bark near the lowest ramifica- 
tions of the trunk; and each tree is annually 
| subjected to incisions from its seventh to about 
its eighteenth year, and annually produces about 
| three pounds of benzoin. 
The fig benjamin-tree, Micus benjamina, has 
| but an accidental association of popular name 
with the other benjamin trees. It is an orna- 
mental evergreen small tree, requiring hothouse 
BENZOIN. 
culture; it has smooth leaves, and usually grows 
to the height of about 10 feet; and it is a native 
of the Hast Indies, and was introduced to Great 
Britain about the middle of last century. 
BENNET (Hers). See AvEns. 
BENNET (Way). See BaR.ey. 
BENT. See Agrostis. 
BENTHAMIA. A recently introduced and 
very beautiful, hardy, evergreen shrub, of the 
dogwood tribe. Loudon, in his Gardener’s Mag- 
azine, speaks of it with enthusiasm, and says,— 
‘““We want words to express our admiration of 
this shrub. Beautiful as it is, it is so easy of 
propagation, that it will soon be in every cottage 
garden.” Only one species, Benthamia fragifera, 
is yet known; and this was introduced from the 
East Indies in 1825, and given out for propaga- 
tion and diffusion in 1833. “The general ob- 
server,” says Loudon, “may form an idea of it, 
by imagining Cornus florida covered with the 
flowers of Stuartia Malachodendron, and the 
fruit of Arbutus unedo—but rather larger.” The 
first plant of it grown in Europe was raised at 
St. Austle in Cornwall; it grew in the open | 
ground, in stiff clay, at a comparatively great 
elevation, without even the slightest protection ; 
and in 1833, it had a height of 16 feet, and was 
covered with fruit. The leaves of the Benthamia 
resemble those of Cornus mascula, but are more 
elegant ; its involucral leaves, which first defend 
and afterwards garnish the heads of its flowers, are 
large and showy; its flowers are of a yellowish 
colour, and bloom during summer; and its heads 
of ripened fruit are orbicular, depressed, more 
than one inch across, of a tawny red, and on a 
peduncle 3 inches in length. A bush studded 
with the fruit, partly pendulous by their weight, 
abounding in neat green glossy leaves, and en- 
joying the mellow sheen of autumn, is a very 
lovely object, and will be a superb decoration of 
the home-plots of farmeries, and the mimic lawns 
of the better class of cottages. It grows either 
from seed in the open ground, or from a cutting 
under a hand-glass. It was named in honour of 
George Bentham, Esq., secretary to the London 
Horticultural Society. 
BENZOIN. A substance of a nature interme- 
diate between a resin and a balsam. It is popu- 
larly but improperly called a gum. The benzoin 
of commerce is obtained wholly or at least prin- 
cipally from the storax benjamin-tree ; and is 
brought to Great Britain in large masses, packed 
in chests and casks. It has a very agreeable 
fragrant odour; and is used by the Malays and 
the Roman Catholics, in their public religious 
ceremonies, as an altar perfume. The best kind 
of it consists of 80:08 per cent. of resin, 19°80 of 
benzoic acid, 0°12 of moisture, and a trace of 
volatile oil. It is administered for asthmas and 
other pulmonary affections by the Tamul physi- 
cians, and was formerly used for the same pur- 
poses by the physicians of Great Britain; but it 
is now employed in this country, only for prepar- 
