ig 
BROWN. 
02 
BROWN. A dusky dark brick colour. Brown 
horses vary in the shades of brownness, from light 
to very dark; but, as a class, they are reckoned 
not so beautiful as bay or chestnut horses. Al- 
most all have black manes and tails; many have 
black joints, though of a rustier and less shining 
hue than those of the bays; many also are light- 
coloured about the muzzle; and most have a 
| shading off into lightness of colour towards the 
| five years ago from the Hast Indies. 
| their discovery of strychnia. 
| 17°39 of oxygen. 
belly. Many are coarse, yet strong and ser- 
viceable, fit for burden, for draught, or for the 
saddle. The most beautiful are a few which 
happen to be finely dappled. 
BROWN BENT. See Agrostis. 
BROWN STOUT. Strong brown beer, brewed 
| from brown high dried malt. 
BROWSH. Such succulent spray and twigs of 
shrubs and trees as are eaten by cattle. 
BRUCHA. A genus of tender, evergreen, or- 
| namental shrubs, of the turpentine-tree family. 
The rusty ash-leaved species, Brucea ferruginea, 
| was brought from Abyssinia in 1775, and named 
|, Brucea in honour of the celebrated Abyssinian 
_ traveller; and two other species, the slender and 
the Sumatran, were introduced about twenty- 
They usu- 
ally grow to the height of from six to ten feet; 
and they require stove-house culture. 
An important vegetable alkali takes from this 
genus of plants the name of brucea, and was dis- 
covered by Pelletier and Caventon soon after 
It was obtained 
from a bark which they erroneously supposed to 
be that of one of the species of Brucea; and it 
has since been obtained from St. Ignatius’ bean, 
from the bark of the false angustura, and from 
the bark of Strychnos nux vomeca, Tt is hitter 
and poisonous, and resembles strychnia, but is 
twelve or sixteen times less energetic. It con- 
sists, according to Liebig, of 70°88 per cent. of 
carbon, 6°66 of hydrogen, 5°07 of nitrogen, and 
The chief salts of brucea are 
the nitrate, the muriate, the sulphate, the phos- 
phate, the oxalate, and the acetate; and all these 
are bitter, and, with the exception of the phos- 
phate and the acetate, are crystallizable. Bru- 
cea is powerfully medicinal; and, when better 
known, may possibly become a valuable remedy 
in certain cases of paralysis, diarrhoea, and cho- 
lera. 
BRUGMANSIA. A genus of splendidly orna- 
mental tender plants, of the nightshade tribe. 
It is very closely akin, in all botanical character- 
| istics, to the datura or thorn-apple genus; but 
differs from the plants of that genus in being 
ligneeus and perennial. ‘The sweet-scented spe- 
cies, Brugmansia suaveolens, formerly called Da- 
tura arborea, is one of the most gorgeous inhabi- 
tants of the British greenhouse, and has of late 
years been so acclimated as to take its station in 
the open ground, in the same manner as bouvar- 
dias, verbenas, cinerarias, and other mere win- 
ter inmates of the greenhouse. This superb 
BRUGMANSIA. | 
plant was introduced to Britain from Peru in 
1733, and was long treated as one of the most 
tender beauties of the stove. “It rises with a 
woody stalk,” says Miller, “to the height of 12 
or 14 feet, dividing into several branches, gar- 
nished with oblique leaves, 6 inches long, and 25 
broad in their broadest part, growing narrower 
at each end; they are oblique to the footstalk, 
which stands nearer to one side than the other ; 
they are downy, and stand on long footstalks. 
The flowers come out at the division of the 
branches; these have a loose tubular empale- 
ment, near 4 inches long, which opens at the | 
top on one side like a spatha or sheath, within | 
the empalement; the tube of the flower is nar- | 
row, but immediately above it swells very large | 
for near 6 inches in length, then spreads open 
at the brim, where it is divided into five angles, 
which terminate in very long points; they are 
white, with some longitudinal stripes of a pale | 
yellow on their outside; these are succeeded by | 
round smooth capsules, filled with kidney-shaped | 
seeds.” This plant has, for a very long period, | 
been carefully cultivated by the Chilese; and, 
for some years past, has become a well-deserved 
and very high favourite with the most tasteful 
and scientific class of British gardeners. It can 
be so cultivated as to bloom through all the sum- 
mer and most of the autumn, and to be covered 
at one time with a perfect canopy of flowers ; it 
displays a most imposing contrast between the 
rich green of its ample foliage and the delicate 
whiteness of its large pendulous bells; and it 
throws around it such a cloud of exquisite fra- 
grance as to fill a conservatory or even a garden 
with its perfume. A variety of it called the yel- 
low-flowered, B. s. flava, is distinguished princi- — 
pally by having its flowers of a sulphur colour. 
The white-stalked species, Brugmansia candida, — 
is frequently confounded with the sweet-scented | 
species, and seems to have shared with it the | 
old botanic name of Datura arborea. This spe- || 
cies was introduced from Peru in 1813; and it 
has similar habits to the sweet-scented species, 
and produces also white-coloured flowers, but 
usually grows to only about two-thirds of the 
height.—The two-coloured species, Brugmansia 
bicolor, but called by some botanists Brugmansia 
sanguined, was introduced from Peru in 1833 ; 
and possesses high attractions in the magnifi- 
cence of its flowers and foliage, and considerable 
interest in the chemical principles of its seeds. 
Its stem is arboreous, and about twelve feet in 
height ; its branches are short and leafy ; its 
leaves are dark green above and paler below, 
from two inches to twelve inches in length, al- 
ternate, ovate, oblong, waved and scolloped, with 
short blunt lobes ; its flowers are produced singly 
from the forks of the branches, and are funnel- 
shaped, seven inches in length, green towards 
the base, orange-yellow further on, a deep orange 
scarlet in the five-lobed limb,—and this last col- 
our, lessened in intensity, extends down the 
