BIRD'S NEST. 
tinguished chiefly by the lighter colour or yellow- 
ness of its flowers.——The Cretan bird’s foot trefoil 
Lotus Creticus, is also cultivated in Britain as 
an ornamental greenhouse plant; and it was in- 
troduced about 160 years ago from the Levant. 
Its stems rise to the height of three or four feet, 
but are slender and require support; its branches 
are few and lateral; its leaves are neat, shining, 
silvery, and trifoliate, and grow from the joints 
of. the branches; its floral footstalks rise from the 
side of the branches, and have a length of two or 
three inches; and its flowers grow in heads of 
four or six, have a yellow colour, and appear from 
June till September.—These two species, as well 
as two other ornamental greenhouse kinds, are 
propagated by cuttings.—A hardy perennial her- 
baceous ornamental species, called Lotus palustris, 
was introduced a few years ago from Crete, and 
must not be confounded with the Cretan species. 
—The only other sort we can afford to notice is 
Lotus odoratus, distinguished for its fine fragrance, 
introduced about forty years ago from Barbary, 
and having the characters of an erect, deciduous, 
perennial-rooted herb. 
BIRD’S NEST,—botanically Monotropa. <A 
genus of curious plants, of the heath tribe. They 
are not true heaths, nor do they belong to the 
rhodora and rhododendron family, but constitute 
of themselves a subsection of ericee. The under- 
_ pines species, Monotropa hypopitys, grows indi- 
genously in Britain, and is met with occasionally 
on poor and gravelly open grounds, but most 
frequently in woods, under firs and beeches. It 
particularly abounds in the midland counties of 
England. Its root is fibrous, branched, and 
rather creeping; its stem is solitary, and about 
half a foot in height; and its flowers grow in a 
drooping cluster, are white in colour, and appear 
in June and July.—A species somewhat like the 
British one, and called Monotropa uniflora, was 
introduced a few years ago from North America. 
Several other species are known.—Bird’s nest is 
also the popular name of a very beautiful hot- 
house fern, of the spleenwort genus, introduced 
about twenty years ago from the East Indies,— 
Asplenium nidus.—Bird’s nest was likewise, till 
quite recently, the popular name of the wild car- 
rot, Daucus carota. 
BIRTHWORT. See AristonocHta. 
BISCUIT. A hard, dry, flat bread cake. It 
acquired its name from the old and obsolete pro- 
cess of twice-baking. It is free from yeast, and 
therefore better suited to the stomach of infants 
and dyspeptic persons than fermented bread ; and 
it is deprived of moisture by the particular me- 
thod of baking, and therefore keeps very much 
longer than loaf bread. The unleavened bread 
of the Jews, and the loaf or cake mentioned in 
several passages of the New Testament Scriptures, 
were biscuits. The modern use of the biscuit is 
very common on land, by both the luxurious and 
the dyspeptic; and it is perfectly indispensable 
during all sea-voyages which are longer in con- 
BISMUTH. 
tinuance than the usual duration of freshness in 
loaves. Sea-biscuits are baked in all large sea- 
ports for the supply of merchant-vessels, and in 
certain great manufactories for the supply of the 
national navy; and they are of two qualities, a 
finer and a coarser,—the latter more nutritive 
than the former, and made of ground wheat from 
which nothing but the bran has been separated. 
Coarse sea-biscuits are one of the most nourish- 
ing, digestible, and grateful forms of prepared 
human food.—The numerous pastry articles sold 
under the name of biscuits by confectioners, are 
exceedingly various in composition, and possess 
scarcely one property in common with true bis- 
cuits. The word biscuit has also a technical use 
in the manufacture of earthenware. 
BISCUTELLA. See Buckier Mustarp. 
BISHOPING. See Acz or Antmats. 
BISHOP’S WEED. Two annual umbelliferous 
plants, of the genera ammi and sison. The 
greater bishop’s weed, Ammz majus, is a native 
of the south of Europe, was brought to Britain 
about the middle of the 16th century, and now 
grows wild in some districts by the side of 
hedges. Its stem is firm, round, striated, and 
about two feet high; its flowers are white, form 
large umbels at the top of the stem, appear | 
in June and July, and give the plant some re- 
semblance to parsley when in bloom; and its 
seeds are ripened in August, have a warm and 
aromatic taste, and were formerly used in medi- 
cine. 
as a biennial, or sown in autumn where it is to 
remain.—The other bishop’s weed was formerly 
called Prmpinella lateriflora, but is now called 
Sison ammt. It was introduced to Britain from 
the south of Europe in 1819, grows about a foot 
high, and produces white flowers in July and 
August. 
BISMUTH. Asimple metal, of specific gravity 
9°822, or nearly ten times heavier than water. It 
is nearly as fusible as tin, and rather softer than 
copper; and, when slowly cooled, crystallizes in 
cubes. It has a reddish white colour, and appears 
as if formed of mutually adhering broad shining 
plates. It is neither very brittle nor very mal- 
leable, but breaks by a stroke, and can be reduced 
to powder. Its ores are usually metallic, not 
very widely diffused, most plentiful in Saxony, less 
plentiful in Cornwall, France, and Sweden ; and 
they generally contain cobalt. Bismuth itself 
produces no effect on the animal system; but the 
subnitrate of it has recently been introduced to 
human medicine, and will probably be introduced 
to farriery, as a valuable and very powerful drug. 
This drug is very easily prepared by the action 
of nitric acid upon the metal, and is a perfectly 
white, tasteless, and odourless powder. A dose of 
it varies from one grain to about twelve grains ; 
but is far too active and critical to be prescribed 
by any person but a regular and skilful practi- 
tioner. It acts advantageously in spasmodic 
affections, palpitations of the heart, and epilepsy, 
ae 
When the plant is cultivated, it is treated | 
al 
