BRACT, or BRAC'TE 1, in botany, a leaf from the aril of which a flower ors floral axis is produced, instead of an ordinary leaf-bud or brancit. Bracts are sometimes called floral leaves. The term B. is not, however, generally employed when, ns is often the case, there is no marked difference from the ordinary leaves of the plant; but the Mow are said to be axillary, or in the nxils of the leaves. On the other hand, the term B. is very frequently applied to all altered leaves interposed between the onlinary leaves and the flower or flowers. In this ease, they are sometimes very small and scale-like. The ordinary leaves often pass, by imperceptible gradations, into bracts, diminishing in size becoming more simple, and often seariose. Bracts arc generally entire, even when the ordinary leaves are divided. They are sometimes colortd sons apparently to form part of the flower, and sometimes crowded, so as to resemble an involuere or an outer calyx.
They appear to serve purposes analogous to those of leaves, or, when colored, of petals. When the primary floral axis is branched, bracts (sometimes distinguished as re«frolbcs or braracts) are often to be seen at its ramifications. Bracts sometimes fall of at an early stage, sometimes they are more permanent, and sometimes they even remain to cover and protect the fruit.
BItACTON, HENRY DR, an English ecclesiastic and chief justiciary in the reign of Henry III. He took the degree of doctor of laws arOxford, and was itinerant justice for Nottingham and Derby counties in 1245. Iu 1265, lie was appointed chief justiciary. He wrote a comprehensive and systematic work on the laws of England, modeled after the "Institutes" of Justinian.