Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/300

 BER

BES

Berkkle is alfo a name given by the people or" many parts of

France to the patella, or limpet. See Path i la. BERRY (CycL)— Some define berries as a fruit fmaller than apples, growing in bunches, but not fo thick or clofe as grapes 3. Others a foft, flefhy, fucculcnt fruit, having ftones. or kernels within them b .— [ a Caji. Lex. Med. p. 97. a. b Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 936.] " Such are the fruits of laurels, olives, currants, and the like. French Berry, grains e? Avignon, or gtmne jaune, is the fruit of a ffirub called by the antients lydum and pizacania, frequent about Avignon, and in the fouth parts of France ; of confider- able ufe among dyers and illuminers for a yellow colour. See Lycium.

The fhrub grows in a rough, ftony foil. Its branches are be- fet with prickles two or three feet long : its hark is blackifli ; its leaf fmall and thick, like that of box ; but difpofed like that of myrtle: its root yellow and woody : its berry is green, bor- dering on yellow, of the fize of a grain of wheat, bitter and aflringent to the tafte. Savar. Di£t. Comm. T. z. p. 260, feq.

For the true French berry is frequently fubftitiited another fort, called berries cf Noirprun, or Nerprun, produced alfo about Avignon ; which being fteeped in w T ater while green, yield a tolerable yellow colour. Id. ibid. p. 872. Fijbing Berries, baua pijeatoria; a denomination given to the coccula indicts, made by poachers into a parte, and crum- bled fmall, like berries, wherewith they intoxicate fifh ; fo that they may be taken with the hand. J^uinc. Difpcnf. P. 2. §. io. p. 492. BERS, in antient medicine, an electuary ufed by the Egyptians to excite deliriums the defcription whereof is given by Prof- per Alpinus, de Medic. Egypt. 1. 4. c. 122. a. Caji. Lex, Med. n. 102. b. EERSARIJ, in writers of the middle age, a kind of hunters or fportfmen, who purmed wild bcafts in forefls and chaces. Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 541. The word feems derived from the barbarous Latin berfare, to fhoot with a bow a. On which principle, it fhould properly denote archers only, or bowmen. Or it might be derived from berfa, the fence or pales of a park b. In which view, it fhould primarily import thofe who hunt or poach in parks or forefls. — [ a Menage, p. 95. voc. berfer. b Spehn. Gloff. p. 80. Du Cange, lib. cit. voc. herfa.\

Hincmar fpeaks of a kind of inferior officers in the court of Charlemaign, under the denomination of bcrfarii, ■veltrarii, and beverarii c. Spelman takes the firft to denote thofe who hunted the wolf ; the fecond thofe who had the fupcrinten- dency of the hounds for that ufe; and the third thofe who hunted the beaver A. — [ c Hincm. Epift, 3, c. 17. ''-Spehn. Gloff. p. 80.] EERSE, in botany, the name given by the French writers to the fphcndylium, or cow-parfnep, a fpecies of umbelliferous plants common in our meadows, and known by its large rough leaves and remarkable height. See Sphondylium. BERTH, in the fea-language, denotes a convenient diftance or

room to moor a fhip in. Manw. Diet. p. 8. Skinn. in voc. To take a good Berth, fignifies to go a pretty diftance off to fea-board off any point, rock, or other thing they would go clear of. Id. ibid. BERTHING, in the fea-language, denotes the raifing or bring- ing up of fiiip-fidcp. Thus they fay, a clincher hath her fides berthed up before any beam is put into her. Manw. Sea Diet. p. 8. BERTONA, Eertonia, Berthona, Eerton, or Barton, properly denotes that part of a country farm, where the barns and other inferior offices ftand, and wherein the cattle are foddered, and other bufinefs is managed. See Clauf. 32. Ed. 1. m. 17. Spelm. p. 80. Barton is alfo ufed to fignify a farm, as diftinctfrom a manor. Du Cange, T. I. p. 542.

In fome parts of the weft of England, they call a great farm a herion ; and a fmall one a living. Jac. Law Diet, in voc. Hence alfo bertonari'i was antlently ufed for thofe we now call farmers, or tenants of bartons. BERULA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the com- mon upright water-parfnep, or fium ereclum umbelhtum. Dale, Pharmac. p. 125. BERY, Beria, or Berie, in middle-age writers, denote a flat, wide campaign. Du Cange, T. 1. p. 538. Spehn. Gloff. p. 80.

In which fenfe, the word differs from bury or borough, a town, tho' ufually confounded therewith by gloffographers. Hence Beria S. Edmundi, mentioned by Matt. Paris under the year 1 174, is not to be underftood of the town, but the adjoin- ing plain. — And hence the denomination bery-jield, and bery- meadow, is ftill retained to divers fiat and wide meads, and open grounds. Hence alfo berras ajfartare is to dry or plow up heaths or downs. And hence our warrens are called coney- berries. Kenn. Gloff. ad Paroch. Antiq. in voc. Bery is either ufed feparately, or in compofition with the names of divers places ; as Mxbery, Acornbery, &c. BERYL, (CycL) in natural hiftory, the name of a fine pellucid gem. of a fea.green or bluifh green. This is very plainly the fame itone that the antients "called the beryl s and the more

aciiratc later writers have called it by that name, tho' our jew* ellcrs have learned of the Italians to call it the aqua marina. The antients, however, according to Pliny, took in feveral other of the gems, when of pale, diluted colours. The later writers have more accurately kept up to the characters of the gem, and taken in no other kind under the name. But our lapidaries, however, are more than even with the antients ; for they call by this name not only a peculiar kind of cryfhil, defcribed under the name of beryl cryftal, but the purer and brighter oriental cornelian.

The beryl, or aqua marina, when pure and perfect, is a very beautiful gem ; but it is at prefent not greatly eitecmed. It is found in various fhapes and fizes ; but feems never to be found fo very fmall as many other of the gems : the fize of a hemp-feed is the fmallcft commonly met with ; and the third of an inch may be eftecmed the common fize of the larger. It is fometimes found in form of a fmall and very irregularly fhaped pebble, fomewhat approaching to a rounded or oblong figure ; but full of fmall, flat faces irregularly difpofed : but its more ufual appearance is the form of cryftal, being found in hexangular columns, terminated by hexangular pyramids ftand- ing in clutters on the furfaces of rocks, or in the fiffures of the ftrata of ftone. It is ever of a bright and natu rally -polifhed furface, and is of a mixed colour of blue and green, making together what we call a fea-water colour. It has this colour in all degrees, from a very deep and dufky hue to the palenefs of water ; but never has the leaft tinge of any other colour. The ftones defcribed by authors under the names of chryfobe- rylli, as having a mixture of yellow in their tinge, are pro- perly another gem of the prafius kind, they not having the leaft tinge of blue among the green, nor at all refembling the fea- water in colour.

The beryl, in its fin eft ftate, approaches to the hardnefs of the garnet ; but it is often much fofter, and confequently of the lefs value. There is, however, a common error which gives our jewellers an idea of this, and other of our gems, being much fofter than they really are, which is, the miftaking the common tinged cryftals, frequent in mines, and called by au- thors pfeudobcryllus, &c, for the genuine gems of thofe names. It is eafy to conceive thefe cannot be any harder, and it is na- tural enough to fufpect they cannot be fo hard as cryftal in its common colourlefs ftate.

The beryl parts with its colour in a very fmall fire ; but is, when colourlefs, greatly inferior to the ametlnit or fapphire. It is found in great abundance in the illand of Ceylon, and in many other parts of the Eaft Indies, as alfo in America : many of them are found alfo in Silefia, and fome other parts of Eu- rope ; but in this, as in all other gems, the oriental are vaftly fuperior to thofe of any other part of the world in hardnefs, as well as in luftre, and the beauty of their colour. Hill's Hift. Foffil. p. 595.

Gorrseus gives a lift of eight fort of beryls, diftinguifhed only by the dtverfity of their colour. Caji, Lex. Med. ' Mr. Boyle alfo fpeaks of a white kind of beryl. Phil. Work. abrldg. T. 3. p. 108:

The vulgate and the feptuagint call the eighth ftone belonging to the high-prieft's pectoral, beryl; but the Hebrew, jafphe. Cabnet. Diet. Bibl. T. r. p. 283.

Beryl is alfo a name given by feveral of our jewellers to a fpecies of brown fprig cryftal, with a remarkably long pyramid, called by Mr. Hill cilipomacrojlylum lucidumfufatm, pyranudc longijjima, max'ime irrcgidari.

This is the brighteft of all the brown cryftals, and is effenti- ally different from the fpecies commonly known by that name. It is found in Italy, and fome parts of Germany. The Italians call it, by way of eminence, the beryl cryjl 'a I ; but our jewel- lers drop the word cryftal, and call it fimply the beryl. Hence it had, a few years ago, generally prevailed in London, that this was the beryl, or proper gem of that name ; and every jeweller, being willing not to be without the beryl, and this fpecies of cryftal not being very common, any other tolerably clear brown cryftal was cut, to fupply its place ; and good brown cryftal was generally accounted the beryl of the antients. Nor was the error confined to London alone : for De Boot accufes his countrymen of ignorance on the fame occafion. Hill, Hift. ofFoff p. 178.

Beryl, berillus, is alfo a name given to a kind of cryftal look- ing-glafs, fuperftitioufly confecrated to the purpofes of conjur- ing and divination.

Hence alfo the term berilhjlica, ufed for the myfterious art of feeing future or diftant events in fuch glafles. Ruland. Lex. Alch. in voc. berillus.

BERYTIUM, foftftsv, in the antient phyfic, an opthalmic me- dicine or collyrium, invented by Berytius againft the fevereft epiphoras. See its defcription in Galen, I. 4. de Compof. Me- dic, c. 7.

The fame denomination is alfo given to a fort of paftil, of ufe in dyfenteries. Vid. Gal. 1. g. c. 5. Gorr. Med. Defin. p. 74.

BES (CycL) — The bes originally weighed two affes; whence the origin of the word quafi binus as. Though Scaliger conjec- tures it to have been formed from dues ; as bellum from duel- lum, or bonum from duonum. Beverin. Synt. de Ponder, p. 37.

Bes was alfo ufed in the menfuration of lands, to denote -A of a jugerum, or acre. Cohtmel. 1. 5. c. 1. Fab. Thef. p. 349.

z BESAILE,