Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/877

BERBERIDACEÆ. anthers are two-celled, each cell opening by a valve which curves back from bottom to top, ex- cept in Podophyllum, in which the anthers split lengthwise; the carpel is solitary and one-celled; the fruit is either a berry or a capsule. The order contains 11 genera and 135 species, chiefly belonging to the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and of South America. The chief genera are Berberis, Podophyllum, Caulophyllum, Jeffersonia, Leontice.

BER'BERINE. A poisonous alkaloid found in many plants of the orders Berberidaceæ, Menispermaceæ, and Ranunculaceæ. If administered in small doses, it acts as a gastric bitter and improves the appetite. It is the chief alkaloid ingredient of the medicinal preparations of hydrastis.

BER'BERIS. See.

BERBICE, ber-bes'. The eastern division of British Guiana (Map: Guiana, F 3). The capital, Berbice, or New Amsterdam, is situated on the estuary of the Berbice River, has a population of about 9000, and is an important commercial centre. See.

BERCEUSE, bfir'sez' (Fr., cradle-song). A lullaby, a cradle-song; a vocal or instrumental piece of music with a soft and swinging melody. The German equivalents are Wiegenlied and Schlummerlied. Chopin's Opus 57 is a most beautiful berceuse. The name may be applied also to some of the cradle-songs familiar in England and the United States, such as Sleep, Baby, Sleep, and Sweet and Low.

BERCHEM, berK'em. A fortified suburb of Antwerp, Belgium, with a population, in 1900, of 22,000.

BERCHEM, (1620-83). A Dutch landscape painter, the most important of the seventeenth-century group who in their choice of subjects deserted Holland for Italy in the manner of Claude Lorrain. He was born at Haarlem, the son of Pieter Claesz (the origin of the name Berchem, by which he is generally known, is uncertain), studied under van Goyen, J. B. Weenix, and Wils, and, though there is no positive evidence that he was ever in Italy, achieved marked success in landscape work of an Italian type with corresponding figures. He is more uniformly happy in drawing than in coloring, and his later development was not wholly an improvement, since he showed a tendency to exchange his faithfulness to nature for a more mannered style. He left more than 400 paintings, found especially in the Louvre and at Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, and Dresden, besides numerous etchings.

BERCHET, bar'sha', (1783-1851). An Italian patriotic poet and one of the leaders of the Romantic School in Italy. He was born in Milan, December 23, 1783. His connection with the Conciliatore, a semi-political organ, forced him, after the Revolution of 1821, to flee to England, where most of his earlier poems were published. Profugi di Parga, a denunciation of the English Government's attitude toward the people of Parga, was warmly commended by Manzoni. It was followed by Romanze, based upon Italian political subjects, which, by both their sentiment and their easy rhythm, became exceedingly popular, and earned Berchet the title of an Italian Tyrtæus. In 1829 came the Fantasie, in which an exile is supposed to review in a dream the past glories of the Lombard League. "It was," says Mazzini, "dictated by anger and pride; pride of ancient memories and anger at modern sluggishness." Between 1828 and 1848 Berchet lived alternately in France, Belgium, Germany, and Greece. In 1848 he returned to Italy, took an active part in the revolution of that year, and was appointed Minister of Public Instruction by the provisional Government of Milan. After the suppression of the revolution he retired to Turin and was at the time of his death, in 1851, a member of the Sardinian Parliament. There is an edition of his collected works, by Cusani (Milan, 1863), preceded by a good biographic sketch.

BERCHOUX, bar'shoo', (1765-1838). A French poet, born- at Lay-lis-Saint-Symphorien (Loire). His first work was a satire, Les Grecs et les Romains, but it is as the author of Gastronomie that he is best known. Portions of this book have passed into proverbs, and have given its author the reputation of a gourmet, which, it is said, was undeserved.

BERCHTA, berK'ta (same as modern Bertha, from 0H(. heruht, MHG. herht, Engl, bright; cf. Lat. Lucius, from lux, light, and Clara, from clarus, clear, bright). In German myth- ology, the name given in the south of Ger- many and in Switzerland to a spiritual being, who was apparently the same as the Hulda (gracious, benign) of northern Germany. This being represented originally one of the kindly and benign aspects of the unseen powers; and so the traditions of Hulda (q.v.) in the north con- tinued to represent her. But the Berchta of the south, in the course of time, became rather an object of terror, and a bugbear to frighten chil- dren; the difference probably arising from the circumstance that the influence of Christianity in converting the pagan deities into demons was sooner felt in the south than in the north. Lady Berchta has the oversight of spinners. The last day of the year is sacred to her, and if she finds any flax left on the distaff that day, she spoils it. Her festival is kept with a prescribed kind of meagre fare — oatmeal gruel, or pottage, and fish. If she catches any persons eating other food on that day, she cuts them open, fills their paunches with chopped straw and other such agreeable stuffing, and then sews up the wound with a plowshare for a needle, and an iron chain for a thread. In some places she is the queen of the crickets. She is represented as having a long iron nose and an immensely large foot. That she was once an object of worship is tes- tified by the numerous springs, etc., that bear her name in Salzburg and elsewhere. It is likely that many of the sagas of Berchta were transferred to the famous Berthas of history and fable. The numerous stories of the 'White Lady' who appears in noble houses at night, rocks and nurses the children while the nurses are asleep, and acts as the guardian angel of the race, have doubtless their root in the ancient heathen god- dess Berchta.

BERCHTESGADEN, berK'tcs-ga'den. A district in Upper Bavaria, occupying the southeastern end of the German Empire (Map: Germany, E 5). Its area is 240 square miles. It has a rocky, mountainous surface, and is noted for its picturesque scenery, which makes it a tourists'