Betty

(A cant word.) An instrument used by thieves to break open doors. -[It. bocetta .] A Florence flask, or pear-shaped bottle, wound around with straw, and used to hold olive-oil. Bet'ula, n. [Lat., from Celt., birch.] ( Bot . ) The birch, a genus of trees or shrubs, order Betulacea . The genus is characterized by its flowers growing in catkins, the scales of which are thin and three-lobed, and by the scales subtending three flat fruits, each furnished with two styles, and expanded into a thin wing on either side; these fruits are what are vulgarly called birch seeds. The species are, with one exception, found beyond the tropic in the northern hemisphere; the species of the southern hemisphere is a little evergreen plant called B. antarctica , of which little is recorded except that it inhabits Terra del Fuego. Among the American species, the most remarkable, and at the same time the most valuable of the genus, is B. papyracea , the paper or canoe birch. (See Fig . 102.) It grows in great quantities between Lat. 43° and 73° N., and often acquires the height of 70 feet. Its wood is sometimes used in North America for cabinet-makers' work; but it is not of much IMG:content-0611.png:[blocks in formation] Fig. 351.- BLACK OR MAHOGANY BIRCH, ( Betula lent a.) 1. Inside of a barren scale. with the anthers detached. 2. Inside of a fertile scale, with the ovaries attached. 3. Inside of a scale with their ripe fruits. 4. A ripe fruit. natural size. 5. The same. magnified. 6. A transverse section of the same. leaves, and in the hairine of the branches. The true B. papyracea has branches and leaves with scarcely any hairs; the variety B. trichoclada has extremely hairy branches and heart-shaped leaves; and that called B. platyphylla has very broad leaves. B. lent a , the black or mahogany birch, has catkins short, erect; branches quite smooth; leaves thin, cordate, oblong, tapering to a point; stipules very large and membranous. None of our birches produce timber so valuable as this. Its wood is hard, close-grained, and of a reddish brown. It is abundant in the Middle States, as in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but more to the south it only appears on the summits of the Alleghanies. Deep rich soil is what it prefers; and when it attains its greatest dimensions, which are as much as seventy feet of height and three of diameter, it is a handsome tree, budding remarkably early in the spring, when its leaves are covered with a short thick coat of down; this disappears later in the season, and leaves them of a bright and lively green. Among the European species, B. alba , the common birch, the most beautiful of the European forest-trees, grows, under favorable circumstances, to the height of 60 to 70 feet. The leaves are small, of an ovate-triangular shape, and doubly serrated. The bark is smooth and silvery white, and the outer layers are thrown off as the trunk increases in diameter. Betulaceæ, ( bet - u - lai'se-e.) ( Bot .) The Birch worts, an order of plants, alliance A men tales . - DIAG. A two- celled ovary, a solitary pendulous ovule, and a superior radicle. This order contains but 56 species in the two genera, Alnus and Betula , q. v. Bet'uline, n. (Chem.) A resin contained in the bark of the black birch, Betula nigra. Betu'tor, v. a. To instruct. (R). Bet'wah, a river of India that has its source in Lat. 23° 14′ N., and Lon. 77° 22′ E., and joins the Jumna in Lat. 25° 57' N., and Lon. 80° 17' E., at abt. 30 m. E.S.E. of Calpee. Between, (bē-twên',) prep. [A S. bet we on an , betwynan, from be and twegen , two. In the intermediate space; betwixt. - In the middle of. - From one to another. - Bearing relation to two. - Belonging to two. Castor and Pollux with only one soul between them. - Locke. value for exposure to weather, as it soon decays if sub--Noting difference of one from the other. jected alternately to damp and dryne . Its bark is the part which is the most esteemed; this part is said to be so durable that old fallen trees are stated to be frequently found with their form so well preserved that one would think them perfectly sound, but upon examining them it is found that the whole of the wood is rotted away, and nothing is left but the sound and solid case of bark. This part is used for a number of useful purposes; log-houses are sometimes thatched with it; little boxes, cases, ., and even hats, are manufactured from it; but its great value is for making canoes. For the purpose of obtaining pieces sufficiently large for such a purpose, the largest and smoothest-barked trees are selected; in the spring. two circular incisions at the distance of several feet are made, and a longitudinal incision on each side; then, by introducing a wedge of wood between the trunk and bark, the latter is easily detached. With threads prepared from the fibrous roots of the white spruce fir ( Abies alba ), the pieces of bark are sown together, over a light frame-work of wood, and the seams are caulked with the resin of the balm of "Children quickly distinguish between what is required from them, and what not. - Locke.