BEAR’S-BREECH, or brank-wrane, in botany: a genus of the angiosperma order, belonging to the didynamia clas of plants; and ranking in the 40th natural order, Perforate. The generic characters are: The calyx is a perianthium with leaflets of three alternate pairs unequal and persistent: The corolla is one-petalled and unequal; the tubus very short, closed with a beard; no upper-lip, the under-one very large, flat, straight, very broad, three-lobed, and obtuse: The filamina have four filulated filaments shorter than the corolla; the two superior rather longer, recurved, and incurved at the top; the antherae are oblong, compressed, obtuse, lateral, parallel, and villous before: The pistillum has a conic germen; a filiform stylius, the length of the filamina; and two acute lateral stigmata: The perianthium is an acutely-ovated bilocular capsule, with a lateral partition: The seeds one or two, fleshy and gibbous.

Species. 1. The mollis, or common bear’s-breech, a native of Italy, is the sort that is used in medicine, and is supposed to be the mollis acanthus of Virgil; and the leaves are famous for having given rise to the capital of the Corinthian pillars. 2. The spinosus, or prickly bear’s-breech; the leaves of which are deeply jagged in very regular order, and each segment is terminated with a sharp spine, as are also the footstalks of the leaves and the emplacement of the flower, which renders it troublesome to handle them. 3. Ilicifolius, or starbust bear’s-breech, grows naturally in both the Indies. It is an evergreen shrub, which rises about four feet high; and is divided into many branches, garnished with leaves like those of the common holly, and armed with spines in the same manner: the flowers are white, and shaped like those of the common acanthus, but smaller. 4. The nigra, or Portugal bear’s-breech, with smooth sinuated leaves of a livid green colour, was discovered in Portugal by Dr Jussieu of the royal garden at Paris. 5. The middle bear’s-breech, with entire leaves, having spines on their border, is supposed to be the acanthus of Dioscorides. Culture, &c. They are all perennial plants. The first and second species may be propagated either by seeds, or by offsets from the roots. The best way is to raise them from the seeds; which should be sown about the end of March, in a light soil. They are best dropped at distances into shallow drills, and covered three quarters of an inch with mould. When the plants are come up, the strongest should be marked, and the rest should be pulled up, that they may stand at a yard distance one from another. They require no other culture but to keep them clear from weeds. The third, fourth, and fifth sorts, are propagated only by seeds; which, as they do not ripen in Europe, must be obtained from the places in which they grow naturally; the plants are so tender, that they cannot be preserved out of the stove in this country.—The first species is the most used in medicine. All the parts of it have a soft sweetish taste, and abound with a mucilaginous juice: its virtues do not seem to differ from those of althea and other mucilaginous plants.

in architecture, an ornament representing the leaves of the acanthus, used in the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite orders.