BERGAMOT. 
ing benzoic acid, and for the perfuming of Roman 
Catholic chapels. 
Benzoic acid, as obtained by the combustion of 
benzoin, is a white smoke, easily condensible into 
a white flocculent mass, and is popularly called 
the flowers of benzoin. It consists of 15 equi- 
valents of carbon, 3 of oxygen, and 6 of hydrogen. 
It exists naturally in the leaves and culms of 
sweet-scented vernal grass and sweet-scented 
soft grass, and in the flowers of the officinal mel- 
ilot,—A nthoxanthum odoratum, Holcus»odoratus, 
and AMelilotus officinalis; it appears to be the 
principle which gives these plants their pleasant 
odour, and occasions most of the delightful fra- 
grance of pasture and hay; and it passes unde- 
composed from these plants, to be a considerable 
element in the urine of cows and other herbi- 
vorous animals. Jt has been detected also in the 
urine of children. But though so prominently 
connected with the agreeable odours of agricul- 
| ture, it seems to have little connexion with its 
uses. Nor is it much used in medicine, except 
as an ingredient in one or two tinctures. 
BERBERIS, or Berperry. See BARBERRY. 
BERE. See Bartny. 
BERGAMOT. A variety of pear, called in 
French bergamotte, and in vulgar English ber- 
gamy. The name is said to be of Turkish origin, 
and to signify ‘ the chief of pears. —Bergamot is 
also a perennial, herbaceous, aquatic ornamental 
plant, of the mint genus, sometimes called Mentha 
odorata, and sometimes Mentha citrata. It grows 
wild in watery places in England, attains a height 
of about a foot, and carries a purple flower in 
July and August.—Bergamot is likewise the 
essential oil of the rind of the bergamot orange, 
or lemon bergamot orange, sometimes called (7t- 
rus bergamium, but more properly Citrus limetta. 
The tree is an evergreen, and usually not more 
than 8 or 10 feet in height; its leaves have an 
oblong, pointed form, and are pale on their under 
surface; its flowers are small and white, and 
bloom from May till July ; and its fruit is pyri- 
form, has a pale yellow colour, and contains a 
slightly acidulous pulp. The oil is obtained 
by pressure and distillation of the rind, and is 
usually called the essence of bergamot. It is one 
of the sweetest and best known of perfumes, 
has a pale greenish colour, is lighter than water, 
possesses considerable resemblance of odour to 
the essential oil of lemons, and is very generally 
sold in a state of great dilution with alcohol. 
BERRY. See Baccirzrous Puanrs. 
BERRYBEARING ALDER. See Axper. 
BETA. See Beer, 
BETHLEHEM (Sraror). See OrnrrHoca.um. 
BETLE, or Beren,—botanically Piper betel. A 
tender evergreen shrub, of the pepper genus. It 
is extensively cultivated in eastern countries, and 
was introduced to Great Britain from the East 
Indies in 1804. It usually grows to the height 
of about six feet. Its leaf contains a powerfully 
stimulating and even intoxicating principle, and 
BEZOARS. 415 
is chewed in most eastern countries in the same 
manner in which low and dirty Europeans chew 
tobacco. The juice of the leaf, too, is prescribed 
by the Vytians as a febrifuge for adults, and as a 
remedy for indigestion in children; and it is 
likewise given, in conjunction with musk, in 
cases of hysteria. 
BETON. See Concrete. 
BETONY,—botanically Betonica. A genus of 
pretty, hardy, perennial, herbaceous plants, of || 
the labiate tribe. One species is indigenous in || 
Great Britain; eight or nine species have been 
introduced from foreign countries,—principally 
continental Europe; and three or four other 
species are known to botanists. The genus is so 
nearly allied to Stachys or hedge-nettle, as to be 
identified with it in some modern botanical sys- 
tems; yet it is sufficiently distinct to be worthy 
of retaining its own ancient name.—The common 
or medicinal betony, Betonica officinalis, grows | | 
wild in almost all woods, thickets, and shady 
grounds in England. Its stem is dark-coloured, 
hairy, and almost naked, and usually attains the || 
height of about a foot; its leaves grow numer- 
ously from the crown of the root, and are about 
an inch in length, comparatively broad, dark 
| 
| 
green, hairy, and serrated; and its flowers are 
small, similar in shape to those of mint, usually 
purple, but sometimes crimson, and sometimes 
yellowish, and bloom in July and August. The 
whole plant, cut immediately before the time of 
flowering, and dried in the open air, was formerly 
in high repute among herbalists as a tonic and a | 
general strengthener of the human system ; and 
the favourite mode of using it was in infusion as 
atea. The fine stiff hairs which cover it cause 
it, when powdered, to provoke sneezing, and oc- 
casion it to be a common ingredient in herb 
snuffs. The other species of betony rank as or- 
namental plants, yet are scarcely worthy of notice. 
—Betony is also the name of a small, ornamental, 
half-tender, evergreen, under shrub, of the ger- 
mander genus, from Madeira, Teucriwm betonicum. 
BETULA. See Biren. 
BEVERAGE. Any liquid which is used as an 
agreeable and ordinary drink. The word is de- | 
rived from an obsolete verb lever ‘to drink.’ 
BEZOARS. Concretions or stony substances 
found in the intestines and other parts of land 
animals. They occur principally in ruminating 
animals, less frequently in other herbivorous ani- 
mals, and occasionally though rarely in human 
subjects who subsist almost wholly upon vege- 
table and especially farinaceous food. They are 
supposed to be formed by agglutination of some 
of the elements of food, upon minute nuclei or 
hair or wool, by the secretions of the intestinal 
canal; they do not seem to occasion any dis- 
astrous symptoms or even any serious incon- 
veniences, yet cannot but be regarded as indica- 
tive of disease: and they are very far from being 
uniformly found in all the individuals of any one 
species of animal, subsisting together on the same 
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