BROeNDSTED, PETER OLAF, a Danish archaeologist; author of “Travels and Researches in Greece,” where by excavations he made important discoveries; his great work “Travels and Archaeological Researches in Greece” (1780-1842).

BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE, French botanist, son of the succeeding, the first to discover and explain the function of the pollen in plants (1801-1876).

BRONGNIART, ALEXANDRE, a French chemist and zoologist, collaborateur with Cuvier, born at Paris; director of the porcelain works at Sevres; revived painting on glass; introduced a new classification of reptiles; author of treatises on mineralogy and the ceramic arts (1770-1847).

BRONTE (16), a town in Sicily, on the western slope of Etna, which gave title of duke to Nelson.

BRONTE, the name of three ladies, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, daughters of a Yorkshire clergyman of Irish extraction:  CHARLOTTE, born at Thornton, Yorkshire; removed with her father, at the age of four, to Haworth, a moorland parish, in the same county, where she lived most of her days; spent two years at Brussels as a pupil-teacher; on her return, in conjunction with her sisters, prepared and published a volume of poems under the pseudonyms respectively of “Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell,” which proved a failure.  Nothing daunted, she set to novel writing, and her success was instant; first, “Jane Eyre,” then “Shirley,” and then “Villette,” appeared, and her fame was established.  In 1854 she married her father’s curate, Mr. Nicholls, but her constitution gave way, and she died (1816-1855).  EMILY (Ellis), two years younger, poet rather than novelist; wrote “Wuthering Heights,” a remarkable production, showing still greater genius, which she did not live to develop.  ANNE (Acton), four years younger, also wrote two novels, but very ephemeral productions.

BRONZE AGE, the age in the history of a race intermediate between the Stone Age and the Iron, and in some cases overlapping these two, when weapons and tools were made of bronze.

BRONZI`NO, a Florentine painter, painted both in oil and fresco; a great admirer of Michael Angelo; his famous picture, “Descent of Christ into Hell” (1502-1572).

BROOK FARM, an abortive literary community organised on Fourier’s principles, 8 m. from Boston, U.S., by George Ripley in 1840; Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the community, and wrote an account of it.

BROOKE, HENRY, Irish dramatist and novelist, born in co.  Cavan; author of the “Fool of Quality,” a book commended by John Wesley and much lauded by Charles Kingsley, and the only one of his works that survives; wrote, among other things, a poem called “Universal Beauty,” and a play called “Gustavus Vasa” (1703-1783).