Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/287

 BED

youth, who had not yet put on the toga viri/is, they were long kept to the antient difcipline. When they were admitted to table, they only fat on the edge of the beds of their neareft re- lations. Never, fays Suetonius, did the young Caefars, Caius and Lucius, eat at the table of Auguftus ; but they were fet in imo loco, or, as Tacitus expreffes it, ad le£ii fulcra. From the greateft fimplicity, the Romans, by degrees, carried their din- ing beds to the raoft furprifing magnificence. Pliny b affures us, it was no new thing to fee them covered over with plates of filver, adorned with the fofteft mats, and the rich- eft counterpanes. — [ a Vid. Hot. Ep. 5. I. 1. hGal/and, in Mem. Acad. Infer. 1702. p. 220. b Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 33. c. 11.

Lampridius, fpeaking of Heliogabalus, fays, he had beds of fo- lid filver, folldo argento babuit /eHos, & tric/iniares, & cub'tcu- lares e. We may add, that Pompey, in his third triumph, brought in beds of gold d. — [ c Lamprid. m Heliogab. c. 20.
 * Pliu. Hift. Nat, 1. 37. c 2.]

Seneca and the poets have many things on the matter and form of thefe beds, the choice of the purple, and exquifitenefs of the embroidery c. Ciacconius has treated this fubjedt. at large in his differtation de triclinia. The contraft is well expreffed in that paflage of Ovid ; the beds of our fathers were adorned with grafs and leaves; the rich themfelves could only afford to cover them with fkins f ; qui poterat pel/es addere, dives erat. ■ — [ c Abbe Couture, DifT. de la Vie Privee des Rom. §. 4. in Mem. Acad. Infer. T. 2. p. 429, feq. f Potter. Archasol. 1. 4. c. 20. p, 376, feq.]

Beds, in gardening, for raifmg melons, mufhrooms, and the like, are commonly denominated ridges.

Mufhrooms ralfed on beds are not fo good as thofe which grow at large in the natural foil. Vid. Brad/. New Exper. on Gard. P. 2. p. 135.

Hot Beds are enriched with extraordinary plenty of manure, and fheltered from the cold air by ftraw coverings, frames, and the like, ferving to help forward the growth of plants, and force a vegetation, where either the feafon or the climate of itfelf is not warm enough. Brad/. New Exper. on Gard. P. 3, c. I. p. 101. See Hot -bed.

To make a hot-bed in February, or earlier, for. the raifing of colliflowers, cucumbers, melons, radifhes, or other tender plants or flowers, they provide a warm place, defended from all winds, by being inclofed with a pale or hedge made of reed or ftraw, and laid with frefh horfe-dung fix or eight days old, trodden down hard, and level on the top ; over which they lay rich earth three or four inches thick. When the extreme heat of the bed is over, which may be perceived by thrufting jn the finger, they plant their feeds. This done, they fet up forks four or five inches above the bed, to fupport a frame made of fticks, and covered with ftraw or bafs-mat, to fecure the feedlings from the weather. As the plants moot in height, they earth them up ; and when able to bear the cold, tranfplant them into natural beds. Brad/, loc. cit. Ruft. Diiil. in voc.

Beds, in fpeaking of hops, denotes the floor whereon they are fpread to dry. Nought Collect. T. 2. p. 451.

Bed of com is a heap, flat a-top, three or four feet high, other- wife called a couch.

Corn, in grannaries, keeps beft in beds or couches. Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1708. p. 90.

l$ED-a/genfe, a name given by the Arab aftronomcrs to a fixed ftarof the firft magnitude in the right fhoulder of Orion. Vi- ta/ Lex. Math. p. 84. Wolf. p. 255. See Orion, Cyc/. Bed-algenfe is of a ruddy colour, by which it is eafily diftin- guiftied. Its longitude, according to Hcvehus, for the year 1700, was 24 35' 5 ', and its latitude fouthward 16 3' 52". Hevel. Prodrom. Aftron. p. 295. Wo'f loc. cit.

BEDALACH, in the materia medica, a name given by fome writers to the gum bdellium j but particularly to that kind of it which was brought from Arabia, and was of a yellowifh colour, like wax. It is to this bdellium that the manna, on which the children of Ifrael fed in the defert, is compared, which, according to the account of that miraculous food, was not unlike it. The other coarfe, blackifti, and foul bdellium comes from other countries.

BEDAUDE, in natural hiftory, a name given by the French authors to a fort of prickly caterpillar found on the elm. See Caterpillar.

BEDDING, leftoriq, in refpedL of horfes and other cattle, de- notes ftraw or litter fpread under them to lie on. Vid. Du Cange, T. 3. p. 237.

Bedding, in fpeaking of a roe, is ufed by fportfmen for the lodg- ing ofthat beaft. Cox, Gent. Recr. P. I. p. 10. A roe is faid to bed; a hart to harbour ; a fox to kenne/.

BEDENGIAN, in botany, a name given by Avifenna and Se- rapion to the poma amor'is, or love-apples, a fort of fruit ufed in food by the Italians, and fome other nations, and feeming to be the third kind of the f/rychnos or folanum mentioned by Theophraftus. That author firft: defcribes two kinds of this plant, the one of which occafioned fleepy diforders, and the other threw people who eat of it into madnefs. After thefe, which he properly accounts poifonous kinds, he mentions a third, which was cultivated in gardens, for the fake of the fruit, which, he fays, is large, and efculent. This is cer-

BEE

talnly the fame with the bedengian, ox poma ttmrk See Thes- phra/i. and Avifenn.

BEDEREP. See Bedrip.

BEDOARA, in botany, a name ufed by the Arabians, and fome other authors, for the white thorn. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

BEDOUIS, a fet of the Arabs, inhabitants of Egypt. Thefe live in tents, and fubfift moftly by the cattle they^grazx, which are camels and goats that feed on fmall fhrubs. They live on each fide the Delta, and are much about Mecca. PococFs Egypt, p. 177.

BEDRIP, orBEDREpF, orBEDERAPE, the cuftomary fervice which inferior tenants antiently paid their lord, by cutting down his corn, or doing other work in the field. Kenn. Glofi? ad Paroch. Antiq. in voc.

The word is formed from the Saxon bidden, to pray* and repe, to reap or cut corn.

In this fenfe, bedrip amounts to the fame with what is other- wife called in Latin writers precaria.

Bedrip is ufed, in fpeaking of the days of work in harveft ; as fome yet are bound to give them one, two, or three days work, called in fome places loon-days. B/ount's Law Diet, in voc. bedcrep.

BEE, in phyfiology and husbandry, a naked, winged, favificous infect, bred from maggots or worms, that are apoda, or with- out feet ; remarkable for their skill and induftry in gathering of honey and wax from flowers, and on that account frequent- ly preferved in gardens. Hcugbt. Collect, T. 3. p. 257! Beiides the common honey-bee, which we raife in hives, and have at all times under our care, there are nine other fpecies, which we have wild about our fields. Thefe are, 1. The wild bee, of the fize and colour of the common bee, but having very long and ftreight antenme. This is lefs hairy than the common bee. 2. The wild, black, wall bee. This is all over black : its body is fhort, and its legs are of an orange colour. This has a fting like that of the common bee. It builds in old walls. 3. The long-bodied wild bee, with a yellow body and black tail. This alfo buiids in old walls. ' 4. The fmall, long-bodied, wall bee, with white fpots on its body and legs. This is alfo frequently found about old walls. 5. The fmalleft wild bee, with long reddifh hair on the breaft, and whitifh on the fides. 6. The earth bee. This fpecies is fo named from its making a hole in the earth for the reception of its young. This is fmaller and weaker than the common bee, and is ufu- ally met with in large fwarms, all living in one large fubterra- neous apartment. 7. The great wild bee, refembling the hum- ble bee in its colours and halrinefs, and having a black rim round the wings. 8. The tree bee. This is fo called from its always building in hollow trees. It is fomewhat larger than the common bee, and is more hairy. Ray, Hift. Inf. p. 244. To the fpecies of hive bees belong the common or honey bee; the male bee, or drone ; and the king, or rather t\ueen-bee. The queen is fomewhat bigger, confiderably longer, and of a brighter red than the others. Her office is to direct, and lead the fwarms, and to raife a new breed, by depofiting eggs, which turn to maggots in the cells, and are afterwards meta- morphofed into bees. Her fertility is fo great, that fhe brings forth ten or twenty thoufand young in a year; fo that fhe may be literally faid to be the mother of all her people. Generally there is but one queen-bee, fometimes two, or at moft three in a hive of eight or ten thoufand bees. Maraldi, ap. Hift. Acad. Scienc. ami. 17 12. p. 7, feq. h Mem. Acad. Scienc. ann. 17 12. p. 394.

The drones are ufually fuppofed to be the males ; but this is only conjecture : they are produced, like the reft, by the queen ; only the eggs for them are depofited in a larger (brt of cells for the purpofe. They have no ftings, are of a darker colour, and generally larger, efpecially longer, than the honey bee. Some hives have more of them, others fewer, and fome at certain feafons none. Their office is faid to be, to ferve as fervants and nurfes to the young fry, and as ftallions for the pleafure of the queen. Hift Acad. Scienc. loc. cit. Hought. ubi fupra. We have a fort of bees, which breed up their young not in hives or combs, but in cafes made of leaves. They are not nice as to what tree they fhall ufe the leaves of, but fix in- differently on almoft any. The fyringa, or lilac, however, is one of the moft common. One leaf contains many cafes ; and as thefe lie one behind another, and the hindermoft is finiftied, and the egg depofited in it, firft, it might appear, that the bee hatched there muft come to maturity firft, and eat its way thro' all the reft to get out ; but it is more probable, that all the eggs in the body of the parent being at the fame ftate of matu- rity when the neft is begun, the firft laid is the laft hatched, the others having the advantage of being fome time longer in the parent's body, which muft bring them forward more than while in the cafe. By this means, the laft laid will be firft hatched, and fo the anterior cells will be all ufelefs and empty, as the animals in the pofterior ones become ready for their go- ing out.

Bees, which breed in cafes made of willow-leaves, and lo.lged in the rotten wood of the fame tree, are the moft remarkable of this kind. ' Thefe creatures, in their maggot or worm-ftate, either eat a hole deep enough for their reception, or finding one ready bored, take poffeftion of it. When they are to lie- by