**Bellinzona**, a town of Italy, in the Milanese; and one of the bailiwicks which the Switz possess in that country. It is seated on the river Jelino, five miles above the place where it falls into the Lago Maggiore, and it is fortified with two strong castles formerly joined together by a wall flanked with towers; but the Swiss have demolished a part of the fortifications. E. Long. 9° 0' N. Lat. 46° 8'.

**Bellis**, the daisy; a genus of the syngenesia order, belonging to the polygama superflua class of plants.

Species, &c. 1. The perennial, with a naked stalk, having one flower. This is the common daisy, which grows naturally in pasture-lands in most parts of Europe. It is often a troublesome weed in the grass of gardens, so is never cultivated. Its leaves have a sub-tile subacid taste; and are recommended as vulneraries, and in affusions and hectic fevers, as well as in such disorders as are occasioned by drinking cold liquors when the body has been much heated. Ludovicus prefers this plant to those commonly used as anticoagulants and resolvents of coagulated blood in hypochondriacal disorders. 2. The annual, with leaves on the lower part of the stalk, is a low annual plant growing naturally on the Alps and the hilly parts of Italy. It seldom rises more than three inches high; and hath an upright stalk garnished with leaves on the lower part; but the upper part is naked, supporting a single flower like that of the common daisy, but smaller. 3. The hortensis, or garden daisy, with a large double flower. This is generally thought to be only a variety of the common daisy; but Mr Miller assures us, that he was never able to improve the common daisy by culture, or to make the garden daisy degenerate into the common sort for want of it. The varieties of this species cultivated in gardens are, the red and white garden daisy; the double variegated garden daisy; the chidling, or hen and chicken garden daisy; and the cock's-comb daisy with red and white flowers. The garden daisies flower in April and May, when they make a pretty variety, being intermixed with plants of the same growth; they should be planted in a shady border, and a loamy soil without dung, in which they may be preserved without varying, provided the roots are parted and transplanted every autumn. This is all the culture they require, except keeping them free from weeds. Formerly they were planted as edgings to borders; but for this purpose they are improper, because where fully exposed to the sun, they frequently die in large patches, whereby the edgings become bald in many places.

**Bellis Major**. See **Chrysanthemum**.

**Bellon**, a distemper common in countries where they smelt lead ore. It is attended with languor, intolerable pains and sensations of gripings in the belly, and generally coliciveness.—Beasts, poultry, &c. as well as men, are subject to this disorder; hence a certain space round the smelting houses is called bellon-ground, because it is dangerous for an animal to feed upon it.

**Bellona**, in Pagan mythology, the goddess of war, is generally reckoned the sister of Mars, and some represent her as both his sister and wife. She is said to have been the inventress of the needle; and from that instrument is supposed to have taken her name Bellona, signifying a needle. This goddess was of a cruel and savage disposition, delighting in bloodshed and slaughter. ter; and was not only the attendant of Mars, but took a pleasure in sharing his dangers. She is commonly represented in an attitude expressive of fury and distraction, her hair composed of snakes clotted with gore, and her garments stained with blood: she is generally depicted driving the chariot of Mars, with a bloody whip in her hand; but sometimes she is drawn holding a lighted torch or brand, and at others a trumpet. Bellona had a temple at Rome, near the Circus Flaminius, before which stood the column of war, from whence the consul threw his lance when he declared war. She was also worshipped at Comana, in Cappadocia; and Camden observes, that, in the time of the emperor Severus, there was a temple of Bellona in the city of York.