BALSAM n.
not the people's blessing a balsam to thy blood Tennyson. Balsam apple (Bot.), an East Indian plant ( Momordica balsamina), of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices. -- Balsam fir (Bot.), the American coniferous t…
BARBADOS; BARBADOES n.
A West Indian island, giving its name to a disease, to a cherry, etc. Barbados cherry (Bot.), a genus of trees of the West Indies (Malpighia) with an agreeably acid fruit resembling a cherry. -- Barbados leg (Med.), a species of elephantiasis incident to hot climates. -- Barbados nuts, the seeds of the Jatropha curca…
BEAN n.
ican species in Bruchus fabæ. -- Florida bean (Bot.), the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, and are often polished and made into ornaments. -- Ignatius bean, or St. Ignatius's bean (Bot.), a species of Strychnos. -- Navy bean, the common dried white bean of comm…
BEG v.
To ask to be appointed guardian for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for. Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards. Harrington. Hence: To beg (one) for a fool, to take him for a fool. I beg to, is an elliptical expression for I beg leave to; as, I beg to inform you. -- To bag the question, to assume that…
BERING SEA CONTROVERSY n.
ontroversy (1886 --93) between Great Britain and the United States as to the right of Canadians not licensed by the United States to carry on seal fishing in the Bering Sea, over which the United States claimed jurisdiction as a mare clausum. A court of arbitration, meeting in Paris in 1893, decided against the claim o…