For a full list of his works see W.T. Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual (ed. H.G. Bohn, 1857-1864).
BRYENNIUS, NICEPHORUS (1062-1137), Byzantine soldier, statesman and historian, was born at Orestias (Adrianople). His father, of the same name, had revolted against the feeble Michael VII., but had been defeated and deprived of his eyesight. The son, who was distinguished for his learning, personal beauty and engaging qualities, gained the favour of Alexius I. (Comnenus) and the hand of his daughter Anna, with the titles of Caesar (then ranking third) and Panhypersebastos (one of the new dignities introduced by Alexius). Bryennius successfully defended the walls of Constantinople against the attacks of Godfrey of Bouillon (1097); conducted the peace negotiations between Alexius and Bohemund, prince of Antioch (1108); and played an important part in the defeat of Malik-Shah, the Seljuk sultan of Iconium (1116). After the death of Alexius, he refused to enter into the conspiracy set on foot by his mother-in-law and wife to depose John, the son of Alexius, and raise himself to the throne. His wife attributed his refusal to cowardice, but it seems from certain passages in his own work that he really regarded it as a crime to revolt against the rightful heir; the only reproach that can be brought against him is that he did not nip the conspiracy in the bud. He was on very friendly terms with the new emperor John, whom he accompanied on his Syrian campaign (1137), but was forced by illness to return to Byzantium, where he died in the same year. At the suggestion of his mother-in-law he wrote a history (called by him Ὕλη Ἱστορίας, materials for a history) of the period from 1057 to 1081, from the victory of Isaac I. (Comnenus) over Michael VI. to the dethronement of Nicephorus Botaneiates by Alexius. The work has been described as rather a family chronicle than a history, the object of which was the glorification of the house of Comnenus. Part of the introduction is probably a later addition. In addition to information derived from older contemporaries (such as his father and father-in-law) Bryennius made use of the works of Michael Psellus, John Scylitza and Michael Attaliota. As might be expected, his views are biased by personal considerations and his intimacy with the royal family, which at the same time, however, afforded him unusual facilities for obtaining material. His model was Xenophon, whom he has imitated with
a tolerable measure of success; he abstains from an excessive use of simile and metaphor, and his style is concise and simple.
Editio princeps, P. Possinus, 1661; in Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz., by E. Meincke (1836), with du Cange's valuable commentary; Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxxvii.; see also J. Seger, Byzantinische Historiker des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts (1888), and C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897). The estimate of his work in R. Nicolai, Griechische Literaturgeschichte, iii. p. 76 (1878), is too unfavourable.
BRYNMAWR, a market town of Brecknockshire, Wales, 14½ m. S.E. of Brecknock and 156 m. from London by rail. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6833. It is on the London & North-Western and Rhymney joint railway connecting Rhymney and Abergavenny, being also a junction for a branch line to Pontypool via Blaenavon, and the terminus of the Great Western line from Newport via Nantyglo. The town owes its origin to the development during the first half of the 19th century of ironworks at the upper ends of the valleys that converge in its neighbourhood, its site being previously known as Waun Helygen (Willow-tree Common). The Nantyglo ironworks afford occupation to large numbers of the inhabitants of Brynmawr. Both coal and iron ore were formerly worked, but the coal is exhausted and the ore unsuitable for modern processes. Brynmawr was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1875 out of portions of the civil parishes of Llanelly and Llangattock. In 1894 this was formed into an urban district, which was enlarged in 1900 by the addition of a portion of the parish of Aberystruth in Monmouthshire, the whole being at the same time consolidated into a civil parish.
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, an institution of advanced learning for women, at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 5 m. W. of Philadelphia. The site occupies 52 acres and overlooks a broad expanse of rolling country. The buildings are of grey stone in the Jacobean Gothic style, and consist of an administration and lecture hall, a science hall, a library containing in 1908 about 55,000 volumes mostly for special study, a gymnasium, a hospital and six halls of residence. The requirements for matriculation are high; students are required to choose their studies according to the "group system," which permits them to specialize in two or more subjects; and instruction is given largely by means of lectures. The college is open to "hearers" who are not required to matriculate, to undergraduate matriculated students who are not studying for a degree, to undergraduate matriculated students who are candidates for the degree of B.A., and to graduate students who are candidates for the degree of M.A. or Ph.D. The government rests in a board of thirteen trustees and sixteen directors, all the trustees being members of the board of directors. The president of the college is a trustee and director. The institution was founded by Dr Joseph W. Taylor (1810-1880), a member of the Society of Orthodox Friends, and he provided that the trustees also should be members, but otherwise Bryn Mawr College is non-sectarian. It was incorporated in 1880, and was opened for instruction in 1885. In 1908 it had 419 students.
BRYOPHYTA, the botanical name of the second great subdivision of the vegetable kingdom, which includes the mosses and liverworts. They are all plants of small, often minute, size, and, as the absence of popular names indicates, the different kinds are not commonly recognized. Even the distinction between liverworts and mosses is not clearly made, not only the former but other small plants of higher groups being popularly called mosses. A little careful observation soon shows, however, that the Bryophytes form a well-defined class, including several subordinate groups. Though their study necessarily involves minute observation they possess many features of interest. The adaptations they show to their conditions of life are often very perfect and present interesting analogies with the adaptive characters of the higher plants. They are of great scientific interest not only as representing a special type of life-history and organization, but because in several of the subordinate groups series of forms can be traced, which enable the general course of their evolution to be inferred even in the practical absence of fossil remains of any antiquity.
Bryophytes are very generally distributed over the earth, and those of a single country, such as Britain, afford examples of all the chief natural groups. Sometimes, as is the case with the bog-mosses and some arctic mosses, they may cover considerable tracts. As a rule, however, they occupy a subordinate place in the vegetation, and the different kinds require to be carefully looked for. Covering, as they often do, what would otherwise be bare ground, they are of value in assisting to retain moisture in the soil and in preparing the way for its colonization by higher plants. Although many forms are capable of withstanding periods of drought they succeed best in relatively moist climates and localities. This is shown both by their unequal abundance in different localities of one country and in their scarcity in certain geographical regions as compared with their luxuriance in others.
The external appearance and general organization show great variety. In all mosses and many liverworts (figs. 8, 11) the plant consists of a stem bearing small leaves. In a number of liverworts (figs. 2, 7), on the other hand, it presents no distinction of stem and leaf, but is a flat, dorsiventral body usually closely applied to the substratum on which it grows. This, in contradistinction to the leafy shoot, is termed a thallus. True roots are never present, the plants being attached to the soil by rhizoids, which resemble the root-hairs of higher plants.
