lacked the supreme touch of genius, he
remains a delightful writer, who exercised a wise and sound influence upon
the art of his generation.

Among his other works may be mentioned the poems, _Idylles prussiennes_
(1871), and _Trente-six ballades joyeuses_ (1875); the prose tales, _Les
Saltimbanques_ (1853); _Esquisses parisiennes_ (1859) and _Contes
feeriques_; and the plays, _Le Feuilleton d'Aristophane_ (1852),
_Gringoire_ (1866), and _Deidamia_ (1876).

See also J. Lemaitre, _Les Contemporains_ (first series, 1885);
Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xiv.; Maurice Spronck, _Les
Artistes litteraires_ (1889).

(C.)

BANYAN, or BANIAN (an Arab corruption, borrowed by the Portuguese from the
Sanskrit _vanij_, "merchant"), the _Ficus Indica_, or _Bengalensis_, a tree
of the fig genus. The name was originally given by Europeans to a
particular tree on the Persian Gulf beneath which some Hindu "merchants"
had built a pagoda. In Calcutta the word was once generally applied to a
native broker or head clerk in any business or private house, now usually
known as sircar. _Bunya_, a corruption of the word common in Bengal
generally, is usually applied to the native grain-dealer. Early writers
sometimes use the term generically for all Hindus in western India.
_Banyan_ was long Anglo-Indian for an undershirt, in allusion to the body
garment of the Hindus, especially the Banyans.

_Banyan days_ is a nautical slang term. In the British navy there were
formerly two days in each week on which meat formed no part of the men's
rations. These were called banyan days, in allusion to the vegetarian diet
of the Hindu merchants. _Banyan hospital_ also became a slang term for a
hospital for animals, in reference to the Hindu's humanity and his dislike
of taking the life of any animal.

BAOBAB, _Adansonia digitata_ (natural order _Bombaceae_), a native of
tropical Africa, one of the largest trees known, its stem reaching 30 ft.
in diameter, though the height is not great. It has a large woody fruit,
containing a mucilaginous pulp, with a pleasant cool taste, in which the
seeds are buried. The bark yields a strong fibre which is made into ropes
and woven into cloth. The wood is very light and soft, and the trunks of
living trees are often excavated to form houses. The name of the genus was
given by Linnaeus in honour of Michel Adanson, a celebrated French botanist
and traveller.

BAPHOMET, the imaginary symbol or idol which the K