Generic name is an anglicised version - "Babianer" - of the Afrikaans 'bobbejane'.

Vernacular Dutch 'baviaantjie', or its Cape corruption 'bobbejaantjie' for small baboons.
(baboons are partial to the corms).
(M, Le)

baios, = little, slight, small, humble;
metra, meter, = matrix, the womb.
(fruit a capsule)
(LS, Le)

For Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680),** Danish anatomist, physician, physiologist, mathematician, theologian and professor of anatomy at Copenhagen.
(Ch)

For John Bartram (1699-1777),** the noted American botanist called by Linnaeus the greatest natural botanist in the world.
(Ch)

After Johann Bartsch (Johannes Bartsius) (1709-1738),** German or Prussian botanist and physician who was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
(Ch)

Named after Ferdinando Bassi (1710-1774).**
(Ch)

For Carlo Antonio Lodovico Bellardi (1741 - 1826),** ),** Italian physician, botanist, bryologist and mycologist.
(Ch)

After Jan (Johannes) Le Francq van Berkhey (1729-1812),** Dutch botanist, biologist, lecturer in natural history at the University of Leyden 1773-1795, poet, and physician.
(Ch)

For Count Jacob J. Berzelius (1779-1848),** a renowned Swedish chemist who was the founder of chemical symbols and was also a professor of medicine.
(Ch)

bis, bi-, = twice, twofold, having two-;
dens, dentis, = a tooth.
bidens, = with two prongs, points, etc.
(ld)

blechon, = pennyroyal.
blechnon, = a fern.
(LS, Pza)

For Jacob Bobart (1599-1680),** German botanist, the first Horti Praefectus (Superintendent, Head Gardener) of the Oxford Physic Garden.
His son, Jacob Bobart the Younger (1641-1719), succeeded his father as Horti Praefectus and became acting Professor of Botany at Oxford.
The genus Bobartia was published in 1753 by Linnaeus.
(Ch)

For Harry Bolus F.L.S. (1834 – 1911),** English-born South African botanist, businessman, and founder of the Cape Town Bolus Herbarium, Fellow of the Linnean Society, and member and president of the South African Philosophical Society (later the Royal Society of South Africa). He bequeathed his library, his extensive herbarium and most of his fortune to the South African College for which he also founded a chair of botany.
-afra, = pertaining to Africa.
(Ch, BL)

For Guiseppe Antonio Bonato (1753-1836),** Italian botanist who was professor of botany at Padua.
(Ch)

brabeion, = a prize at the games.
(scepter; the shape of the inflorescence looks like a crown of laurel leaves which the Brabejum somewhat resembles; a prize awarded at the Pythian games held at Delphi)
(LS, Le)

brachys, = short, few, little;
carpos, = fruit.
(with short fruit)
(LS, BL)

brachys, = short, few, little;
laena, = a lined upper garment, cloak, mantle.
chlainion, = a small cloak.
(involucre of bracts shorter than the florets)
(LS, ld, Le)

brachys, = short, few, little;
pous, podos, = a foot.
-ius, = means ‘characteristic of’, hence indicates connexion or resemblance.
(sessile spikelets)
(LS, BL, Le)

brachys, = short, few, little;
siphon, = a tube.

(LS)

brassica, = cabbage.
(ld)

Named after Johann Christian Breutel (1788-1875)**. A bishop of the Moravian church and collector of mostly mosses from the West Indies and South Africa.
(Ch)

brizō, = to nod, slumber, sleep.
(LS)

broma, = that which is eaten, food.
(oat-like grasses)
(LS, Ox)

For Dr. Alexander Brown (fl. 1692 - 1698).** A naval surgeon and plant collector for Leonard Plukenet who worked in the East Indies around 1690.
(Ch)

For Karl [Carl] Wilhelm Ferdinand (1713-1780),** also known as Charles I or Karl I, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg, patron of the arts and sciences who promoted the study of plants, including the beautiful Cape species B. orientalis.
(Ch)

bryo, = to be full of anything, swell or teem with, (to cause to burst forth);
bruon, = moss;
morphē, = form, shape, figure.
[See Morpheus**]
(moss like habit)
(LS, Ox, PG, Le)

For Rev. Adam Buddle (1660-1715),** an English rector, amateur botanist, collector of British plants, and authority on bryophytes.
(Ch)

bulbus, = a bulb, bulbous root, an onion;
-inus, = indicates possession or resemblance.
(ld, BL)

bulbus, = a bulb, bulbous root, an onion;
-inus, = indicates possession or resemblance;
-ella, -ellus, = diminutive.

(ld, BL)