507 
BRAMBLE. 
| BRAIRD. 
. that which is immediately connected with the | make very profitable use of it as litter in their 
sensorial extremities of the nerves, which receives 
the impressions, and is therefore devoted to the 
purposes of animal existence. The second divi- 
sion will include the rest of the brain, which may 
be considered as connecting the functions of the 
nerves with the faculties of the mind. In pro- 
portion, then, as any animal possesses a larger 
share of the latter and more noble part—that is, 
in proportion as the organ of reflexion exceeds 
that of the external senses—may we expect to 
find the powers of the mind more vigorous and 
more clearly developed. In this point of view, 
Man is decidedly pre-eminent; here he excels all 
other animals which have hitherto been investi- 
gated.” Sommering found that the brain of man 
never weighed less than 2 lbs. 53 0z., while that 
of the horse never exceeded 1 lb. 4 oz. in weight. 
But the nerves arising from the brain of the 
horse were at least ten times larger than those 
in man. However ingenious this theory may be, 
it is not found to hold good in every instance ; 
and even if proved, it would still leave the na- 
ture of the union between mind and matter as 
mysterious and as incomprehensible as ever. 
The nerves of the mammalia bear a striking re- 
semblance in their disposition to those of man, 
with the exception of the olfactory nerves, which 
are large and hollow processes of the anterior 
lobes of the cerebrum, the cavities of which com- 
municate with the lateral ventricles of the brain. 
BRAIRD. The spring of annual or other her- 
baceous plants. When the unfolding plumules 
or first leaves of sown crops are vigorous and 
promising, they form what is technically called a 
good braird. 
BRAKE,—botanically Pteris. A large genus of 
beautiful ferns. Most areevergreen; and manyare 
cultivated in our hothouses for their singular ele- 
gance. Oneisanative of Great Britain; about forty 
have been introduced from foreign countries,— 
ranging from Siberia to New Zealand ; about 130 
have been scientifically described ; anda consider- 
able number which were formerly included in the 
genus are now distributed among the genera Tzeni- 
t's, Nothochlzena, Allosorus, Lonchitis, and Cheilan- 
thes. The aquiline or native British species, Péeris 
aquilina, grows in great abundance in the heathy 
wastes of most parts of Britain, and is well known 
to almost all our rural population under the 
names of bracken and breckin. Its root is peren- 
nial, long, tapering, creeping, and outwardly 
black ; its fronds are annual, more than tripli- 
cately pinnated, from one foot to six feet in 
height, but usually about three feet, with hori- 
zontal, spreading, light - green, smooth - ribbed 
branches; and its main stem is sharply angular, 
and wounds the hand which suddenly or firmly 
grasps it. This plant is often greatly damaged 
by severe spring frosts; and it cannot bear to be 
transplanted. The peasantry of many districts, 
cottage piggeries. One of the introduced, orna- 
mental, hothouse species, has simple fronds ; three 
have divided fronds; nine or ten have pinnate 
fronds; ten or eleven have bipinnate fronds ; and 
most of the others have a general conformation 
and appearance similar to those of our indigenous 
species. The name p/eris signifies a wing, and 
alludes to the winged appearance of the greater 
portion of the genus. 
BRAKE. A herbaceous thicket, or wildly lux- 
uriant portion of a common, a heath, or a glade. 
It is properly a place of the brake,—the fern de- 
scribed in the preceding article; but the name 
is, by accommodation, applied to every spot of 
similar character to that of a rank growth of 
brakes. 
BRAKES. Tools and implements of very vari- 
ous kinds, used either in husbandry or in some 
of the arts connected with it. The common brake 
is a large and heavy common harrow, used for 
the reduction of stubborn and adhesive soils. 
The levelling-brake, the revolving-brake, Wilk- 
ie’s-brake, and some other brakes for the pulver- 
izing of soils, are either harrows, or grubbers, or 
compounds of the two, and will come to be no- 
ticed in the articles Harrows and Grupper. A 
brake in machinery is a constraining wheel di- 
vided into joints, which, when necessary, stops 
another wheel that revolves within it. A flax- 
brake is a wooden toothed instrument for so 
bruising the stem of flax or hemp as to separate 
its cortical parts from its interior fibres. The 
brake of a pump is the handle with which it is 
worked. A smith’s brake is an instrument for 
restraining refractory horses while they are being 
shod. See Barnacues. A bridal brake is a sharp 
bit or snaffle. 
BRAMBLE,—botanically Rubus. A large genus 
of plants of the dryas division of the rose tribe. 
Fifteen species, besides numerous varieties, grow 
wildin Great Britain; about forty species have been 
introduced from nearly all the great countries of 
the world, between Labrador and Siberia on the 
north, and New Holland on the south; and up- 
wards of sixty other species have been scientifi- 
cally described. Nine or ten of the introduced | 
species are evergreen shrubs, of various ranges 
of tenderness from the stove to the mere frame ; 
eight of the introduced and three of the indi- 
genous species are upright deciduous shrubs ; 
two of the introduced species are greenhouse 
evergreen, trailing shrubs; two of the introduced 
and two of the native species are perennial-rooted 
herbaceous plants; and all the other species 
growing in Great Britain are hardy deciduous 
trailers. The greater number have palmate 
leaves; six have simply lobed leaves; and ten 
have pinnate leaves,—some with smooth and 
others with woolly under-surfaces. 
The common bramble, Rubus fruticosus, is a 
residing near wastes or hilly commons where it | prickly trailing shrub, almost as well known as 
abounds, cut it down in large quantities, and | the common hawthorn. It grows wild. in many 
