: 
BOG-ASPHODEL. 
urged as a reason for not attempting to improve 
them; but if properly viewed, is really a strong 
inducement to the reclamation of at least all 
large bogs. Turf for fuel can at present be ob- 
tained from only the borders of these bogs, their 
interior being rendered useless and even inacces- 
sible by excessive moisture; but, were they re- 
claimed, turf might be cut from reserved pendi- 
cles in any part of them, and in consequence ob- 
tained in an hundredfold or even thousandfold 
greater quantity. The subject of bog-fuel affects 
all Ireland, all the Scottish Hebrides, much of 
the Scottish Highlands, and a considerable por- 
tion of the British Lowlands; and it possesses, 
in these districts, an engrossing degree of econ- 
omical interest of which the inhabitants of 
coal countries can form little conception. Mr. 
Bicheno remarks, “ The rainy climate of Ireland, 
and the wet occupations of the people, with the 
nature of their food, make a fire more important 
to them than to most others, and, in fact, is fre- 
quently the substitute for clothing, bedding, and, 
in part, shelter. Had it not been for the bog, 
the measures taken in former times to extirpate 
the nation might probably have succeeded; but 
the bog gave them a degree of comfort upon 
easy terms, and enabled them to live under severe 
privations of another kind.” Light fuel-turf, cut 
from the surface strata of a flow bog, is only 
two-fifths the weight of water. A cubic yard of 
this light turf, closely packed, weighs 500 pounds; 
of good turf, 900 pounds; and of very dense turf, 
1,100 pounds. Light turf yields about 74 per 
cent. of volatile matter, 23 of charcoal, and 3 of 
ashes; and dense turf yields 71 per cent. of vola- 
tile matter, 21 of charcoal, and 8 of ashes. Bog 
turf, even its best natural varieties as prepared 
for fuel, wants sufficient density for many econ- 
omical purposes, and, though yielding a vast 
body of volatile inflammable ingredients, evolves 
at no one point an intense heat; but when me- 
chanically compressed into a condition in which 
it may be sold in Ireland for from 6s. to 8s. per 
ton, it possesses a calorific power little inferior 
to coal; and when so carbonized as to cost not 
more than 20s. per ton, it yields about 30 per 
cent. of fine coherent coke, of greater density 
than that of wood charcoal.—Reports of the Com- 
missioners on the Bogs of Ireland —MacCulloch’s 
Statistical Account of the British Empire—Dr. 
Kane’s Industrial Resources of Ireland. — Ordnance 
Survey of the County of Londonderry.—Philoso- 
phical Transactions.—Sir John Sinclair's General 
Report of Scotland—Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture.—Rham’s Dictionary of the Farm.—Muill’s 
Husbandry. 
BOG-ASPHODEL, — botanically Martheciwm 
Ossifragum. A curious, herbaceous, evergreen, 
indigenous plant, of the rush tribe. It grows 
wild in the turf bogs of both England and Scot- 
land. Its root is tuberous; its stem is smooth, 
fine, rigid, roundish, leafy, and from 3 to 8 inches 
high ; and its flowers are spreading and of a bright 
-BOG-EARTH. 467 
yellow colour, with scarlet anthers, and appear 
in July and August. It acquired its specific 
name of ossifragum or bone-breaking, from its 
supposed power of softening the bones of cattle 
which feed upon it; but it has been fully proved 
to possess neither this power nor another one 
ascribed to it,—that of causing the rot in sheep. 
BOG-BEAN,—botanically Venyanthes trifoliata. 
This plant, which is generally distributed in Bri- 
tain, growing abundantly in marshy places, peat- 
bogs, and by the sides of lakes and pools, is one 
of the most beautiful of our native species. It 
belongs to Pentandria monogynia of the Linnean 
system, and to the natural family of Gentianec. 
The root is perennial, long, creeping, jointed, 
and sends out numerous verticillate white fibres. 
The leaves are alternate, petiolate, ternate, the 
leaflets obovate, thick, smooth, and deep green. 
The flower stalk rises to the height of from six 
to ten inches, and supports an oblong or conical 
raceme of numerous very beautiful flowers, which 
are pentapetalous; the corolla previous to ex- 
pansion rose - coloured externally, afterwards 
reddish-white, the petals on the inner surface 
covered with numerous fringe-like white fila- 
ments. All parts of this plant are extremely 
bitter, and in some countries it is used as a sub- 
stitute for hops in the preparation of ale. The 
root, although almost equally bitter, Linnzeus 
informs us, is dried and powdered by the poorer 
people in Lapland, to be made, with a little meal, 
into a coarse unpalatable bread. In this country 
the plant is not applied to any use, if we may 
except its occasional employment in some parts 
of the north of Scotland, as a purgative for 
calves. Formerly it was much employed in va- 
rious chronic diseases, as scurvy, dropsy, jaun- 
dice, asthma, and gout, the paroxysms of the 
latter of which complaints it was supposed to 
keep off, but at present it is neglected on ac- 
count of the preference given to gentian and 
other bitters. There can be no doubt, however, 
that, as an astringent and stomachice, it is equally 
powerful with many exotic plants. | 
BOG-EARTH. Dry powdery black bog, in 
a state of mechanical mixture with silicious silt 
or with any finely-powdered variety of mineral 
alluvium. The most esteemed kind of it com- 
prises about twenty-five per cent. of vegetable 
matter, and has the appearance of a blackish 
and very fine mould; and this is in high request 
among gardeners as the most.suitable soil for 
many kinds of flowering plants, particularly 
some of the American shrubby kinds; and when 
artificially combined with good ordinary mould, 
or occasionally some quicklime, it acts much 
better, both stimulatingly and nutriently, than 
any description of artificial manure. It may be 
obtained sometimes on the surface, but particu- 
larly on the borders, of drained and improved 
bogs, whose natural growth was arrested and 
terminated by alluvial depositions; and some- 
times in superficial alluvial beds, formed over 
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