BERRY, and CLoupBERRY. 
BRAN. 
The sub-upright spe- 
cies, ft. swb-erectus or A. nemoro us, 18 a some- 
what erect-growing shrub, occurs in the woods 
of Britain, usually attains a height of about 4 
feet, has pinnate leaves, produces white flowers 
from June till September, and does not challenge 
attention for fruit.—The hazel-leaved, the folded, 
the similar, the white-spiked, and the buckthorn- 
leaved species, B. corylifolius, plicatus, affinis, 
leucostachys, and rhamnifolius, are all trailers of 
similar length and similar habit to the common 
bramble ; but they produce white flowers, and 
possess the distinctive features indicated in their 
respective names, and do not yield any fruit 
worth notice.—The shining species, /. nitidus, is 
a small upright shrub of about 3 feet in height, 
grows wild in British thickets, and carries white 
blossoms from June till September.—The rock 
species, 2. saxatilis, is a dwarfish trailer of but a 
few inches in length, grows wild in the moist 
_ woods of Britain, and carries white blossoms in 
| June.—The arctic species, 2. arcticus, is a dwarf- 
_ ish deciduous shrub, of only a few inches in 
_ height, grows wild on the rocky mountains of 
| Scotland, produces pink flowers from May till 
August, and is sought after by the Highlanders 
for its fruit. 
The bristly species, 7. hispidus, was introduced 
| from Canada during the latter half of last con- 
tury. It is a small, ornamental, ligneous trailer, 
of about 3 feet in length. Its shoots are rough 
and hairy; its leaves are trifoliatedly palmate, 
smooth, and serrated; the footstalks of both leaves 
and flowers are hispid; the flowers are white, 
and appear in July and August; and the fruit is 
round and red, and ripens in autumn.—The 
sweet-scented species, commonly called the flow- 
ering raspberry, /?. odoratus, was introduced from 
North America in 1800. It is an ornamental 
upright shrub of 7 or 8 feet in height; it prefers 
a moist and shady situation; and it produces a 
reddish or pink-violet flower in June and July. 
—The occidental species, 2. occidentalis, was in- 
troduced from North America before the close 
o the 17th century. It is an upright deciduous 
shrub, of about 5 feet in height, producing white 
flowers in May and June, and is valued for its 
fruit.— Four of the most recently introduced 
species are a trailer from Nepaul, a trailer from 
North America, and two deciduous shrubs from 
respectively North America and Columbia.—Bi- 
ington on Planting.— Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture—Muller, Loudon, Marshall, Smith, and 
Phillips. 
BRAN. The skin or husks of corn, particularly 
of wheat, separated from the flour by the process 
of boulting. It operates, by mechanical irrita- 
tion, as a very gentle aperient, merely quicken- 
ing the passage of the contents of the intestinal 
canal; and when given in the form of a mash, 
and used with caution and moderation, it. cer- 
tainly is useful as an occasional aperient. But 
it ought, in no instance, whether in a raw or ina 
BRANCH. 209 
scalded state, to be used constantly or as an ar- || 
ticle of diet; for if so used, it is apt to weaken a || 
horse’s bowels, and to excite in them many dis- 
orders. A very large proportion of ammoniacal 
phosphate of magnesia exists in wheat bran; and | | 
this salt forms large crystalline concretions, often | | 
amounting to several pounds in weight, in the || 
coeccum of horses belonging to millers. “ Mr. i 
Ernes,” says Youatt, “attended three mills at || 
which many horses were kept; and there were 
| 
always two or three cases of indigestion from the 
accumulation of bran or pollard in the large in- 
testines.” A little wheat bran, boiled in common 
beer, makes it mantle in the cup; and a little 
ammonia, mixed with beer, throws down am- 
moniated phosphate of magnesia in the form of 
a white precipitate. The ashes of wheat bran, 
according to the analysis of Saussure, comprise 
44-15 per cent. of soluble salts, 465 of earthy 
phosphates, 0°5 of silica, and 0°25 of metallic ox- 
ides; and the remaining 8'5 per cent. were lost | 
in the process. Bran is useful as dry food for 
sheep, and in the stall-feeding of black cattle; 
and an infusion of it is said to be a remedy for 
scurf and dandriff.— Bran itself is unquestion- 
ably one of the best materials for clearing mor- 
| 
danted goods, the branic acid probably acting by 
decomposing the mordant in places where it is 
not printed, and rendering it inert. It is supe- 
rior to phosphate of scda by its brightening the 
colours, without loosening them, and its clearing 
a white ground more perfectly. Asan addition | 
to the dye-stuff, madder, log-wood, &c., it is 
equally efficient. With madder its action is 
striking; it prevents too much colour from ad- 
hering to the first piece dyed, and gives it a 
more fiery red by removing the brown tint, so 
that the second appears but a shade lighter than 
the first; in other words, it diffuses the colour 
and brightens it at the same time; the first 
piece passed through a bath precisely the same, 
but without bran, appears of a deep brownish red, 
the second is many shades lighter, and the third 
piece is a very light rose. The best proportion 
is 3 of bran to 1 of madder by weight, but this 
proportion must vary with the quality of the 
madder, and the object in view. 
BRANCH. An arm or division of a tree or 
shrub, shooting out from the caudex ascendens of 
the plant, and assisting to form its head or crown. 
Its organic structure and physiological construc- 
tion are the same as those of the stem. .See the 
article Stum. In some plants, branches shoot 
only from the summit or upper extremity of the 
stem; and in others, they shoot also from its 
sides. In all the intricately headed or profusely 
ramified kinds of plants, the primary branches 
send off secondary ones, the secondary send off 
tertiary,—or all pass through successive subdi- 
visions till they terminate in slender twigs and 
leaf-stalks, jointly constituting “spray.” In 
their mutually relative positions, they are oppo- 
site, alternate, verticillate, or irregular; and in 
| 
