Bay rum is a spirit obtained by distilling the leaves of Myrica acris, or other West Indian trees of the same genus. It is used for toilet purposes, and as a liniment in rheumatic affections. Research Bay Rum
Beef-wood is the timber of some species of Australian trees belonging to the genusCasuarina, of a reddish colour, hard, and close-grained, with dark and whitish streaks, it is chiefly used in fine ornamental work. Research Beef-Wood
Brazil-wood a kind of wood yielding a red dye, obtained from several trees of the genusCaesalpinia, of the order Leguminosae, natives of the West Indies and Central and South America. The best kind is Caesalpinia echinata; other varieties are Caesalpinia brasiliensis, Caesalpinia orista and Caesalpinia Sappan. The wood is hard and heavy, and as it takes on a fine polish it is used by cabinet-makers for various purposes, but its principal use is in dyeing red. The dye is obtained by reducing the wood to powder and boiling it in water, when the water receives the red colouring principle, which is a crystallizable substance called brazilin. The colour is not permanent unless fixed by suitable mordants. Research Brazil-Wood
In logic, a category, or predicament, is an assemblage of all the beings contained under any genus or kind ranged in order. The ancients, following Aristotle, held that all beings or objects of thought may be referred to ten categories: quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, place, situation, and habit. Plato admits only five: substance, identity, diversity, motion, and rest; the Stoics four: subjects, qualities, independent circumstances, relative circumstances. Descartes suggested seven divisions: spirit, matter, quantity, substance, figure, motion, and rest. Others make but two categories, substance and attribute, or subject and accident; or three, accident being divided into the inherent and circumstantial.
In the philosophy of Kant the term categories is applied to the primitive conceptions originating in the understanding independently of all experience (hence called pure conceptions), though incapable of being realized in thought except in their application to experience. These he divides into four classes, quantity, quality, relation, and modality, placing under the first class the conceptions of unity, plurality, and totality; under the second, reality, negation, and limitation; under the third, inherence and subsistence, causality and dependence, and community (mutual action); and under the fourth, possibility and impossibility, existence and non-existence, necessity and contingency. J S Mill applies the term categories to the most general heads under which everything that may be asserted of any subject may be arranged. Of these he makes five, existence, co-existence, sequence, causation, and resemblance, or, considering causation as a peculiar case of sequence, four. Research Category
In philosophy, Conditioned and Unconditioned are terms which were introduced by Sir William Hamilton. The Unconditioned is regarded by Sir William Hamilton as a genus including two species: the Infinite, or the unconditionally unlimited, and the Absolute, or the unconditionally limited; and the thesis which he maintains and expounds, and which forms one of the leading doctrines of his philosophical system, is that the Unconditioned, as thus explained, is entirely unthinkable. The mind is confined, in point of knowledge though not of faith, to the limited and conditioned - the Conditioned being the mean between two unconditionates, mutually exclusive and equally inconceivable, but of which, on the principles of contradiction and excluded middle, one must be admitted as necessary. Thus infinite space is inconceivable by us, while at the same time it is equally impossible to us to conceive of space as finite; yet one of these must be admitted necessary, and our conception is in some sense a mean between the inconceivables. The doctrine was applied by Mansel to determine the limits of religious thought. Research Conditioned
A definition is a brief and precise description of a thing by its properties; an explanation of the signification of a word or term, or of what a word is understood to express. Logicians distinguish definitions into nominal and real. A nominal definition explains the meaning of a term by some equivalent word or expression supposed to be better known. A real definition explains the nature of the thing. A real definition is again accidental, or a description of the accidents, as causes, properties, effects, etc; or essential, which explains the constituent parts of the essence or nature of the thing. An essential definition is, moreover, metaphysical or logical, defining 'by the genus and difference', as it is called; as, for example, 'a plant is an organized being, destitute of sensation', where the part first of the definition states the genus (organized being), and the latter the difference (destitute of sensation, other organisms/beings possessing sensation); or physical, when it distinguishes the physical parts of the essence; thus, a plant is distinguished by the leaves, stalk, root, etc. A strictly accurate definition can be given of only a few objects. The most simple things are the least capable of definition, from the difficulty of finding terms more simple and intelligible than the one to be defined. Research Definition
Dikamali is a resin exuding from Indian trees of the genusGardenia, a solution of which was formerly used to dress wounds and open sores. Research Dikamali
Ear-cockle is a disease in wheat caused by the presence in the grain of worms belonging to the genus Vibrio. The disease is also called purples in some parts of England. Research Ear-Cockle
Grafting is an operation by which a bud or scion of an individual plant is inserted upon another individual, so as to become organically united with the stock on which it has been placed. Grafting can only take place between plants which have a certain affinity, individuals of the same species, genus, or order. The graft does not become identified with the stock to which it is united, but retains its own peculiarities of variety or species. The parts between which grafting is effected must be actively vegetating.
The advantages derived from grafting are the preservation of remarkable varieties, which could not be reproduced from seed; the more rapid multiplication of particular species, and the anticipation of the period of fructification, which may thus be advanced by several years. The principal methods of grafting are 1. By approach This process is intended to unite at one or more points two plants growing from separate roots. Plates of bark of equal size are removed, the wounds are kept together and protected from air. Stems, branches, or roots may be united in this way. 2. By scions - Under this head there are a variety of methods, such as whip, splice, cleft, saddle, crown grafting, etc.
In whip-grafting ot tongue-grafting the stock is cut obliquely across and a slit or very narrow angular incision is made in its centre downwards across the cut surface, a similar deep incision is made in the scion upwards, at a corresponding angle, and, a projecting tongue left, which being inserted in the incision in the stock, they are fastened closely together.
Splice-grafting is performed by cutting the ends of the scion and stock completely across in an oblique direction, in such a way that the sections are of the same shape, then laying the oblique surfaces together so that the one exactly fits the other, and securing them by tying or otherwise.
In cleft-grafting, the stock is cleft down, and the graft, cut in the shape of a wedge at its lower end, is inserted into the cleft; while, in saddle-grafting, the end of the stock is cut into the form of a wedge, and the base of the scion, slit up or cleft for the purpose, is affixed.
Crown-grafting or rind-grafting is performed by cutting the lower end of the scion in a sloping direction, while the head of the stock is cut over horizontally and a slit is made through the inner bark. A piece of wood, bone, ivory, or other such substance, resembling the thinned end of the scion, is inserted in the top of the slit between the alburnum and inner bark and pushed down in order to raise the bark, so that the thin end of the scion may be introduced without being bruised. The edges of the bark on each side are then brought close to the scion, and the whole is bound with matting and a lump of clay put round it.
3. By buds - This consists in transferring to another stock a plate of bark, to which one or more buds adhere. Bud-grafting is the most commonly practised, especially for multiplying fruit-trees and roses, owing to the facility with which it may be performed. Research Grafting
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Bay Rum
