Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/152

LEFT BO-TBEE 130 BOTTOMRT deemed by white, regular teeth, and sparkling: black eyes. They are rather yellow than copper colored, and their hair, of which only a tuft is worn on the smooth shaven head, is not quite black. Their name is derived from the Portu- guese, botoqiie, bung hole, with reference to their under lip, pierced to hold a disc of wood, sometimes 3% inches in diam- eter. They generally go quite naked, and have no fixed settlements, but in their wanderings through the country keep the routes open by means of bridges of creep- ers woven into ropes. Their food in- cludes anything not absolutely poisonous that will stay their hunger; even soft earth is eaten. Their speech is entirely distinct from that of the other Indian nations; they have no religion, properly speaking, but are abjectly afraid of spir- its, and pay a certain worship to the moon as creator of the world. Ungov- ernably passionate, they often commit outrageous cruelties; but through sys- tematically cruel treatment they have been almost annihilated, and now number not more than 4,000. BO-TREE, the ficiis religiosa, pipal, or sacred fig-tree of India and Ceylon, venerated by the Buddhists and planted near their temples. One specimen at Anuradhapura, in Ceylon, is said to have been planted before 200 B. c. It was greatly shattered by a storm in 1887. BOTRYCHIUM, a genus of ferns be- longing to the order ophioglossacex (adders' tongues). B. lunaria, or com- mon moonwoi't, occurs in dry mountain pastures in Europe. B. virgmicum, an American species, is called the rattle- snake fern, from its growing in such places as those venomous reptiles frequent. BOTRYTIS, a genus of fungi, with clusters of minute globular seeds or seed vessels. They grow on rotten herbace- ous stems, decaying fungi, living leaves, and similar localities. The muscadine disease which destroys so many silk worms is caused by one species, B. hassi- ana. B. infectans, which causes the po- tato disease, is now removed to the genus p€7'07lOSp07'a. BOTTA, PAUL EMILE, a French traveler and archaeologist, born in Turin, Dec. 6, 1802; was appointed French Con- sul at Alexandria in 1833. He under- took a journey to Arabia in 1837, de- scribed in his "Relation d'un Voyage dans I'Yemen." He discovered the ruins of ancient Nineveh in 1843. He published two important works — one on the cunei- form writing of the Assyrians ("Me- moire de I'Ecriture Cundiforme Assy rienne"), and the other upon the monu- ments of Nineveh ("Monuments de Ninive," 5 vols, folio, with drawings by Flandin, Paris, 1846-1850). He died in Acheres, March 29, 1870. BOTTICELLI, ALESSANDRO (bot- ti-chel'le), a Florentine artist, bom in 1440. He studied painting under Lippi; whose manner he successfully imitated, and was one of the earliest engravers, having learned the art from Baldini, and applied it to the illustration of Dante's works, printed in 1488. Two pictures of his, "Venus Rising from the Sea," and "Venus Adorned by the Graces," are highly spoken of. He died in 1515. BOTTLE, a vessel with a relatively small neck adapted to hold liquids. The first bottles were of leather (Josh, ix : 4). Such leathern bottles are mentioned by Homer, Herodotus and Vergil, as be- ing in use among the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans, as they still are in Spain, Sicily, Africa, and the East. Earthen- ware bottles followed (Jer. xiil: 12); these are generally furnished with handles, and are called flasks. Modern bottles are chiefly of glass, and glass bot- tles have been found at Pompeii. BOTTLE GOURD, a gourd, lageimritt vulgaris, called also the white pumpkin. The Hindus cultivated it largely as an article of food. There are several vari- eties. One is the sweet bottle gourd; an- other is used as a buoy in swimming across Indian rivers, transporting bag- gage, etc. BOTTLE NOSE, a cetacean, the bottle nosed whale (hyperoodon bidens), very destructive to food fishes, and of com- paratively little economic value itself. It is the prime aversion of fishermen. BOTTLE TREE {dektbechea rupes- tris), a tree of northeastern Australia, order sterculiacese, with a stem that bulges out into a huge, rounded mass. It abounds in a nutritious mucilaginous substance. BOTTOMRY, a contract by which the owner of a vessel borrows money on the security of the bottom or keel, by which, a part being put for the whole, is meant the ship itself. If the ship is lost the lender loses all his money. If, on the contrary, it returns in safety, he receives back the principal, with interest at any rate which may be agreed upon between the parties, and this was allowed to be the case even when the usury laws were in force. Bottomry is sometimes cor- rupted into bummaree.