bonsai (Japanese: “tray planting”) Living dwarf tree or trees; also, the art of training and growing them in containers. Bonsai specimens are ordinary trees and shrubs, not heredi¬ tary dwarfs; they are dwarfed by a system of pruning roots and branches and training branches by tying them with wire. The art origi¬ nated in China but has been pursued and developed primarily by the Japa¬ nese. The direct inspiration for bon¬ sai is found in nature, in trees that grow in harsh, rocky places and are dwarfed and gnarled throughout their existence. Prized characteristics are an aged-looking trunk and branches and weathered-looking exposed upper roots. Bonsai may live for a century or more and are handed down from one generation to another as valued family possessions. Bonsai pots, usually earthenware and of variable shape, are carefully chosen to harmonize in colour and propor¬ tion with the tree. A sizable bonsai industry exists as part of the nursery industry in Japan; California is home to a small-scale bonsai industry.
Bontemps\ban-'tam\, Arna(ud) (Wendell) (b. Oct. 13,1902, Alex¬ andria, La., U.S.—d. June 4, 1973, Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. writer of the Harlem Renaissance. At age three Bontemps moved with his family to California. His poetry began appearing in the black magazines Crisis and Opportunity in the 1920s. With Countee Cullen he turned his first novel, God Sends Sundays (1931), into the play St. Louis Woman. Two later nov¬ els dealt with slave revolts. He edited anthologies with Langston Hughes and wrote prolifically for children, mostly nonfiction works on African Americans and African American history. He worked at Fisk University for most of his adult life.
Bonus Army World War I veterans who gathered in Washington, D.C., in summer 1932 to demand payment of their promised bonuses. More than 12,000 veterans and their families camped near the U.S. Capitol, urging support for a bill to force early payment of bonuses already voted by Congress. When the bill was defeated, most of the crowd returned home, but some angry protests caused local authorities to ask Pres. Herbert Hoover for federal assistance. Army troops led by Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur drove out the protesters and burned their camps. The resulting public outcry was a factor in Hoover’s defeat in the 1932 election. Another group of veterans gathered in 1933, but Congress again rejected bonus legislation. In 1936 Congress finally enacted a bill that paid nearly $2 billion in veterans’ benefits.
bony fish Any member of the vertebrate class Osteichthyes, including the great majority of living fishes and all the world’s sport and commer¬ cial fishes. Also called Pisces, the class excludes jawless fishes (hagfishes and lampreys) and cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, and rays). There are more than 20,000 species worldwide, all with a skeleton at least partly composed of true bone. Other features include, in most species, a swim bladder (an air-filled sac to give buoyancy), gill covers over the gill cham¬ ber, bony platelike scales, a skull with sutures, and external fertilization of eggs. Bony fishes occur in all freshwater and ocean environments.
booby Any of six or seven species of large tropical seabirds (family Sulidae), named for their presumed lack of intelligence. Two common species are wide-ranging in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans;
Bonnet monkey (Macaca radiata).
WARREN GARST/TOM STACK & ASSOCIATES
Bonsai pine.
JUDITH GROFFMAN
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
book ► Boolean algebra I 249
another is found in the Pacific from southern California to northern Peru and on the Galapagos Islands. The booby has a long bill, cigar-shaped body, and long, narrow, angular wings. It flies high above the ocean look¬ ing for schools of fish and squid, which it snatches in a vertical dive. Boo¬ bies vary in length from 25 to 35 in. (65-85 cm). They nest in colonies but are territorial.
book Written (or printed) message of considerable length, meant for cir¬ culation and recorded on any of various materials that are durable and light enough to be easily portable. The papyrus roll of ancient Egypt is more nearly the direct ancestor of the modern book than is the clay tab¬ let; examples of both date to c. 3000 bc. Somewhat later, the Chinese independently created an extensive scholarship based on books, many made of wood or bamboo strips bound with cords. Lampblack ink was introduced in China c. ad 400 and printing from wooden blocks in the 6th century. The Greeks adopted the papyrus roll and passed it on to the Romans. The parchment or vellum codex superseded the papyrus roll by ad 400. Medieval parchment or vellum leaves were prepared from the skins of animals. By the 15th century, paper manuscripts were common. Printing spread rapidly in the late 15th century. Subsequent technical achievements, such as the development of offset printing, improved many aspects of book culture. In the late 1990s, downloadable electronic books became available over the Internet.
book club Marketing service that offers books to subscribers through the mail, often at reduced prices. The first U.S. book club, the Book-of- the-Month Club, was founded in 1926; the rival Literary Guild appeared a year later. By the 1980s nearly 100 book clubs existed in the U.S., most of them specialized (e.g., for history books, mysteries, etc.). A common incentive for attracting new members is the offer of several free or heavily discounted books; long-standing members often receive bonuses.
Book of Common Prayer Liturgical book used by the churches of the Anglican Communion. First authorized for the Church of England in 1549, it went through several versions; the 1662 revision has remained the standard (with minor changes) throughout the Commonwealth of Nations. The Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S. adopted a liturgy in contemporary language in the 1970s.
Book of Kells Illuminated manuscript version of the four Gospels, c. late 8th-early 9th century. A masterpiece of the ornate Hiberno-Saxon style, it features geometric design (rather than naturalistic representation), flat areas of colour, and complex interlaced patterns. The illumination was probably begun at the Irish monastery on the Scottish island of Iona; the book was apparently taken to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, Ire., after a Viking raid and may have been completed there. See also Lindisfarne Gospels.
Book of the Dead Ancient Egyptian collection of mortuary texts made up of spells and charms and placed in tombs to aid the deceased in the next world. It was probably compiled and reedited during the 16th cen¬ tury bc. Later compilations included hymns to Re. Scribes produced and sold copies, often colorfully illustrated, for burial use. Of the many extant copies, none contains all of the approximately 200 known chapters.
bookbinding Joining together of leaves of paper, parchment, or vel¬ lum within covers to form a book or codex. Bookbinding developed when the codex replaced the roll. Early bindings were often splendidly deco¬ rated, but the typical artistic bookbinding is of decorated leather and was first produced in the monasteries of Egypt’s Coptic Church. Rare books, historical documents, and manuscripts may be bound by hand. The cover (case) of the typical book is now affixed to the leaves by machine.
bookcase Piece of furniture fitted with shelves, formerly often enclosed by doors. In early times the ambry, or wall cupboard, was used to hold books. Bookcases were included in the medieval fittings of college librar¬ ies in Britain. The earliest dated domestic examples were made of oak in 1666 for the diarist Samuel Pepys.
Booker Prize in full (2002-) Man Booker Prize Prestigious Brit¬ ish award given annually to a full-length novel. It was established in 1968 by the multinational company Booker McConnell as a counterpart to the French Prix Goncourt. The Booker Prize Foundation administers the prize, aided by an advisory committee. Entries, which are nominated by publish¬ ers, must be written by an English-language author from the United King¬ dom, the Commonwealth countries, Ireland, or South Africa. Its winners have included Kingsley Amis, A.S. Byatt, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Salman Rushdie. In 1992 a Booker Russian Novel Prize was introduced.