Bitter Almond
the bitter variety of amygdalus commünis, or common almond.
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Single-source entries: B (83)
These 26 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Bitter Almond, Bitter Apple, Bitter Ash.
Bitter Apple
a name applied to the bitter gourd.
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Bitter Ash
a tree, simarūba amāra, a native of the West Indies, the bark of which is used as a tonic. Others of the same genus have also the same name, S. excelsa of Jamaica having wood almost as bitter as quassia, and being called Jamaica quassia.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bitter Gourd
a plant, citrullus colocynthis, called also colocynth.
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Bitter King
the soulamea amāra, a tree of the quassia order peculiar to the Moluccas and Fiji Islands, the root and bark of which, bruised and macerated, are used in the East as an emetic and tonic.
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Bitter Lakes
salt lakes on the line of the Suez canal.
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Bitter Nut
a tree of North America, of the walnut order, the carya amāra, or swamp hickory, which produces small and somewhat egg-shaped fruits, with a thin, fleshy rind; the kernel is bitter and uneatable.
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Bitter Root
lewisia rediviva, a plant of Canada and part of the United States, order mesembryaceæ, so called from its root being bitter though edible, It bears a solitary rose-colored flower. The plant appears above ground for only about six weeks. California bitterroot (echinocystis fabacea) and Natal bitter-root (gerrardanthus macrorhiza) both belong to the gourd family.
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Bitter Root Mountains
a range of the Rocky Mountains, in Montana, deriving its name from a plant with rose - colored blossoms, whose slender roots are used by the Indians for winter food. The chief summits are Lolo Peak and St. Mary's Peak.
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Bitter Root River
a tributary of the Columbia in Montana, flowing N. into Clark's river in Missoula county; length about 110 miles. Gold has been found in this region.
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Bitter Root Valley
on the E. of the Bitter Root Range, in Montana, is 90 miles long and 7 miles wide, enwalled by lofty mountains, and abounding in farms and cornfields.
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Bitter Salt
Epsom salt, sulphate of magnesia.
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Bitter Spar
rhomb-spar, the crystallized form of dolomite or magnesian limestone.
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Bitter Sweet
the woody nightshade, solānum dulcamāra.
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Bitter Vetch
a name applied to two kinds of leguminous plants, (a) ervum ervilia, a lentil cultivated for fodder; and (b) all the species of orobus, e. g., the common bitter vetch of Great Britain, O. tuberosus, a perennial her-ba by Capes Ras-el-Zebib and El-Arid. baceous plant with racemes of purple flowers and sweet, edible tubers.
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Bitter Wood
the timber of xylopia glabra and other species of xylopia, order anonaceæ, all noted for the extreme bitterness of the wood. The name is also given to other bitter trees, as the bitter ash. yellow gentian
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Bitter-Wort
(gentiāna lutěa). markable for its inflammability and its strong, peculiar odor; generally, however, supposed to be of a vegetable origin. The name, which was in use among the ancient Romans, is variously employed, sometimes to include a number of the substances called mineral resins, particularly the liquid mineral substances called naphtha and petroleum, or mineral oil, and the solid ones called mineral pitch, asphalt, mineral caoutchouc, etc.
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Bittern
a name given to the mother liquid obtained when sea water is evaporated to extract the salt (NaCl). Bittern contains sulphates of magnesium, potassium and sodium, also bromides. It is used as a source of bromine. Under the name of oil of salt, it is sometimes used to relieve rheumatism.
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Bittern
the English name for the birds of the genus botaurus, and especially for the common one, botaurus stel- Laris. The bitterns are distinguished from the herons proper, besides other characteristics, by having the feathers of the neck loose and divided, which makes it appear thicker than in reality it is. They are usually spotted or striped. The species are widely distributed, the best known being botaurus lentigonosus, B. stellaris, and B. minutus, inhabiting the temperate portions of both hemispheres. B. stellaris is in some localities named the "mire drum" or the "bull of the bog," etc., in allusion to its " AVC BITTERN bellowing or drumming noise about February or March, during the breeding season. It is about 2½ feet long. The general color of its plumage is dull, pale yellow, variegated with spots and bars of black. The feathers of the head are black, shot with green; the bill and legs are pale green; the middle claw is serrated on the inner edge. It is nocturnal. It frequents wooded swamps and reedy marshes. B. minutus is much smaller. B. lentigonosus is common in this country.
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Bittersweet
a shrubby climber. In grows along streams and in thickets. It is related to the waahoo and the strawberry-bush. A profusion of orange colored berries, the size of peas, opens late in autumn, making a fine display of the scarlet coverings of the seeds. J. G. Holland has chosen Bitter-Sweet as the title of a poem in which he aims to teach that life contains a share of both elements.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Bitumen, in Magic
Bitumen was greatly used in magical practices. Images for the purpose of sympathetic magic were often made of this substance; and it was used in the ceremonies for the cleansing of houses in which any uncleanness had appeared-being spread on the floor like clay.
Only in An Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Bituminous Coal
coal which burns with a yellow, smoky flame, and on distillation gives out hydrocarbon or tar. It contains from 5 to 15, or even 16 or 17 per cent. of oxygen. See COAL.
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Bituminous Schist
schist impregnated with bitumen; occurs in the Lower Silurian rocks of Russia. Sir R. Murchison considered that it arose from the decomposition of the fucoids imbedded in these rocks.
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Bituminous Shale
an argillaceous shale impregnated with bitumen, which is very common in the coal measures.
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Bivalves
those mollusks whose coverings consist of two concave shelly plates or valves united by a hinge. A vast majority of recent bivalve shells belong to Cuvier's testaceous order of ascephalous mollusca, the lamellibranchiate mollusca of Owen, although with them are some classed as multivalves, on account of accessory valves which they possess. There are also mollusks of the class brachiopoda or palliobranchiata, which possess bivalve shells, as the terebratulæ, or lamp shells, etc. A very large proportion of the bivalve shells of the older fossiliferous rocks belong to the brachiopoda.
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Bivouac
an encampment of soldiers in the open air without tents, each remaining dressed and with his weapons at hand. fortified seaport of
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