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BACTRIA. he asi5igned a strong force of Greeks to occupy Bactria, and it thus became part of the kingdom of the Seleueidie ( q.v. ). About B.C. 25G. with the revolt of the satrap Diodotus I., a new Graeeo- Bactrian kingdom was established, whose power ultimately extended as far as Northern India, although in Iran it had to give place to the Parthian sway. The history of this later Groeco- Bactrian kingdom has been cleared up, in large measure, by means of the coins and other an- tiquities which have been discovered in recent times, especially in Afghanistan. The Greek and later the Prakrit devices and inscriptions on these coins give a series of royal names whose succession has been fixed with comparative accuracy.

The inhabitants of ancient Bactria (modern Balkh ] were closely related to the Persians, and shared in, if they did not produce, the old Aryan culture of this region from which sprang Zoroastrianism, the Indo-Bactrian alphabet, etc. It was in this part of the world that ethnolo- gists formerly sought the primitive home of the Aryan stock, but that assumption is now largely abandoned. Nevertheless an early presence of Aryan peoples here is undoubted, and their in- fluence went both east and west. Of recent litera- ture, reference may be made to Biddulph's Tribes of the Bindoo-Koosh (London, 1881) and Geiger's Die Pumir-Gebiete (Vienna, 1887), besides the ninnerous studies of Ij'falvy on the Aryans of these regions, contained especially in his Expe- dition scientifique francaise en Russie, en Siberie, et dans le Turkestan. (Paris, 1878-80) and Aus dem westlichen Himalaja (Leipzig, 1884). On the general question of the Bactrian kingdom, consult: F. .Tusti, Dos baktrisclie Reich; Geiger and Kihn, fl-nindriss der iranischen Philologie, Vol. II. (Strassburg, 1805) : Gutschmid, Ge- schichte Irans (Strassburg, 1887) ; Wilson, Ariana Antiqiia (London, 1841); and Lassen, Indische Altcrthuinsknnde (Bonn, 1849). On the coins, consult: Percy Gardner, The Coins of the Greek and l<cythic Kings of Bactria and India (Lon- don, ISSfi) : and E. Thomas, "Bactrian Coins," in Journal of the Rogal Asiatic Society (London, 1873).

BACTRIAN CAM'EL. See Camel.

BACTRIAN SAGE, The. An appellation of Zoroaster, the Persian Christ, who was a native of the lulls of the upper O.-cus. See Zoroster.

BAC'TRIS (Gk. ^dKrpov, bakt ron, stafl). A genus of palms, of which nearly fifty species are known, all of which are American. The leaves of some are piimate, those of others entire. They are generally small palms, some of them very small, and with slender stems: those of Bactris tennis being no thicker than a goose-quill. Some are spiny, and fonn thickets not easily traversed. Bactris acanthocarpa yields a thread that is ex- ceedingly tough and is used for making nets. The maraja {Bactris maraja) palm produces large clusters of fruit, resembling small grapes, with a thin pulp of an agreeable subacid flavor. The stems of this species are used for walking-sticks.

BACTRITES, bak-tri'tez (Gk. pdnrpov. bak- iron, stall', stick, in allusion to its straight form similar to that of Baculites). A genus of fossil cephalopods of the order Ammonoidea, and the only member of the family Bactritiche. The shells are straight, very slender, and gently tapering, with a round or elliptical section. The siphuncle is situated near the ventral wall and is very deli- cate. The suture is a simple curve with a small ventral angular lobe over the siphuncle, and, in some species of elliptical section, an incipient lateral lobe. The protoconch or embryonic shell is egg-shaped and erect, and has no scar such as is found on the initial chamber of the Nautilus. Bactrites is of more than ordinary interest, because it seems to furnish one of those rare examples of a connecting link between two well- differentiated orders of animals; namely, the Nautiloidea and the Ammonoidea. The general form of the shell is that of Orthoceras, and the straight cone of Bactrites is a primitive char- acter, as it is in Orthoceras, and not to be compared with the degraded uncoiled shells (Baculites) that are evolved in the senile (phy- logerontic) stages of several Jurassic and Cre- taceous races of Ammonoidea. The shape and position of the protoconch are very similar to that of Mimoceras (Goniatites) compressum, which shell is uncoiled in its early embryonic stages, but becomes closely wound in its adoles- cent stages. Moreover, one of the Nautiloidea, the genus Protobactrites, seems to afford an in- dication of the stock from which Bactrites itself was derived.

The genus Bactrites contains about fifteen species that range through all the formations from the Ordovieian to the Trias, inclusive, with the exception of the Silurian, in which latter no members of the group have yet been found. See Cephalopod..

BACULARD D'ARNAUD', ba'ku'lar'dar'n6', Fbancois. See Abx.ud, FRANgors Thomas de Baculakd d'.

BACULITES, bak'Q-lI'tez (Lat. bacidum, staff', stick, in reference to its straight form). A. genus of fossil cephalopods of the order Ammo- noidea, family Maeroscaphitid^. The shells are usually foiuid as segments of an elongated cone that tapers gently, and has an elliptical or ovate cross-section. The suture-line is quite complex, and indicates that these .shells belong to an advanced race of ammonoids. In perfect specimens pre- serving the protoconch, the embryonic shell is seen to be closely coiled for several" turns, and then to branch off on a tangent to the coil and main- tain a straight condition throughout the re- mainder of its life. Several other genera in- cluded in the same family show similar aberrant phylogerontic forms that have all been derived from the normally coiled shells of earlier types. The genus Baculites contains about thirty" species, all of which are found in rocks of the Cre- taceous Age in both Europe and America. At one locality in France these shells are so abundant as to cause the name of ’Baculite limestone' to be given to the rock containing them. Very fine specimens, often of great size — four feet in length — have been found in the Black Hills of Dakota and Wyoming, and here have also been obtained specimens on which the mother-of-pearl ])resents more beautiful coloring than is to be found on any shells now living in the ocean. For illustration, see Cephalopoda, Plate II., figure 7. See Cephalopoda; Cretaceous System.

BACUP, bak'up. A manufacturing town of Lancashire, England, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. 22 miles north of Manchester (Map: England. D 3). The town was incorporated in 1882, and since that time great improve-