BUSH  . (1) (A word

common to many European languages, meaning " a wood," cf. the Ger . Busch, Fr. bois, Ital. bosco, and the med . Lat. boscus), a shrub or group of shrubs, especially of those plants whose branches grow low and thick . Collectively " the bush " is used in British colonies, particularly in Australasia and South Africa, for the tract of country covered with brush-wood not yet cleared for cultivation . From the custom of hanging a bush as a sign outside a tavern comes the proverb " Good wine needs no bush." (2) (From a Teutonic word meaning " a box," cf. the Ger . Rad-buchse, a wheel box, and the termination of " blunderbuss " and " arquebus "; the derivation from the Fr. bouche, a mouth, is not correct), a lining frequently inserted in the bearings of machinery . When a shaft and the bearing in which it rotates are made of the same metal, the two surfaces are in certain cases apt to " seize " and abrade each other . To prevent this, bushes of some dissimilar metal are employed; thus a shaft of mild steel or wrought iron may be made to run in hard cast steel, cast iron, bronze or Babbitt metal . The last, having a low melting point, may be cast about the shaft for which it is to form a bearing .