504 BOTANY.

54. Miscellanea?, miscellaneous plants. This order consists ofsuch genera as are not connected together by very numerous re-lations.

55. Filices, ferns, bear their flower and fruit on the back ofthe leaf or stalk.

56. Musci, mosses, resembling the pines, firs, and other ever-!

greens of that class, in the form and disposition of their leaves, Iand manner of growth of the female flowers, which are generally jformed into a cone. '

57. Alga?, flags, or rather sea-weeds, consist of marine plants, &c. .

whose root, leaf, and stem, are all one. j

58. Fungi mushrooms, are rarely branched, sometimes creep- |ing, but most commonly erect.

Plante dubii ordinis, plants of uncertain order. Un'ler thisname L.nnxus classes all the other genera which cannot be re-duced to any of the abovementioned orders, and which are near120 in number.

Among the modern elementary works treating on this branchof science, the following are deemed excellent, viz. Dr. Wither-ing’s “ Arrangement of British Plants,” in four volumes 8vo.—Prof. Maityn’s translation of Roussi au’s “Letters on the Ele-ment. of Botany, addressed to a Lady Priscilla Wakefield ’s“ Introduction to Botany and Dr. Hull’s “ Introduction tothe Study of Botany.”

BOTANY-BAY , a bay of New South-Wales, situated onthe E. coast of New-Holfand, so named by Capt. Cook, fromthe great variety of plants lie found on the shore. It was origi-nally fixed on for a colony of convicts from Britain ; but after-wards Port Jackson, 15 miles farther north , was preferred.

BOTE, \bota,'] in our old law books, signifies recompence oramends : thus man-bole, is a compensation for a man slain.There are likewise house-bote and plough-bote, privileges to te-nants, of cutting wood for making ploughs, repairing tenements,and likewise for fuel.

BOTETOURT, a large mountainous county in Virginia , 44miles long and 40 broad.

BOTHA, in old records, a booth, or tent.

BOTHAGIUM, boothage, customary dues to the lord of themarket, for the liberty of pitching booths or tents.

BOTHNIA, a province of Sweden , at the end of the gulphof Bothnia . It is divided into two parts, viz.

Bothnia, East, belonging to Finland : and,

Bothnia , West, a mountainous country. The principal townsare Tornea and Uma. The inhabitants of this province are Pro-testants ; and are civil and well behaved.

BOTHRIAS, or BOTHRION, [/3»9gu>v,] 1. the alveolus orsocket of a tooth. 2. A small, narrow, but deepish ulcer of thecornea of the eye, resembling a round puncture.

BOTIA, or BOTUS, among chemists, a glass-vessel with around belly, and long narrow neck, otherwise called Cucurbita ,and Urinaic.

Botia, in medicine, the same with Strum®, and Scrophul®.BOTONES, BOTONTLNI, or BOTONTONE, in middleage writers, mounts or hillocks, raised to serve as land-marks orboundaries of grounds.

BOTRYCHIUM, in botany, a genus of the class and ordercryptogamia filices : capsule nearly globular, distinct, clusteredin a raceme-like spike, one-celled, opening from the top to thebase. There are five species.

BOTR\ OID, [/McyciiJv;,] in botany clustered in the form ofa bunch of grapes.

BOTS. See Botts.

BOIT, among bone-lace weavers, a round cushion of lightmatter placed on the knee, whereon they weave their lace withbobbins, &c.

BOTTLE, [ bouteille , IT.] a small vessel made of glass, lea-ther, or stone, for holding liquors. Glass-bottles are better forcyder than those of any other substance. Beckmann conceivesthat he discovers the origin of our bottles in the figure of theSyracusan wine flasks. Charpentier cites, from a writing of theyear 1387, an expression which seems to allude to one of ourglass-bottles ; but this, attentively considered, refers merely to■cups or drinking-glasses. The name boutiatix, or boutilles, oc-curs in the French language for the first time on recordin the fifteenth century; but if it were even more ancientit would prove nothing, as it signified originally, and stillsignifies, vessels of clay or metal, and particularly of leather.Such vessels, filled with wine, which travellers were accustomedto suspend from their saddles, might be stopped with a piece ofwood, or closed by means of wooden or metal tops screwed onthem; and such are stil! used for earthcu pitchers. We shallhere adtl, that stoppers of cork must have been, introduced after

the invention of glass-bottles. In 1553, they were little known;and their introduction into the shops of the apothecaries in Ger-many took place about the end of the 17th century. Before thatperiod, they used stoppers of wax, v hicli were more troublesomeand more expensive. Theancient Jewish bottles were cags made ofgoats’ or other wild beasts' skins, with the hair on the inside, wellsewed and pitched together; an aperture in one of the animal’spaws serving for the mouth of the vessel. Bottles of this kindare mentioned in Scripture, am) they were used for carrying waterthrough the deserts of Arabia and other countries, where springsand streams are scarce. Such bottle , indeed, have, been in com-mon use both in ancient and modern limes. The word used byJob (ch. xxxii. 19.) signifies, in tin-original, to swell or distend;it is properly used to express a skin-bottle, which would he madeto swell by the liquor poured in'o it, and which would be moredistended and enlarged, till they would at last burst, if they hadno vent, bv the fermentation of the liquor, as it advanced towardsripeness. Hence we perceive the propriety of putting new wineinto new bottles. &c. according to the appropriate allusion in theGospels, which being moist and strong, would resist the expan-sion, and preserve the w ine to due maturity ; whereas old bottlesof this kind, being dry and more brittle, would be in danger ofbursting, and were best adapted to receive old wine, the fermen-tation of which had ceased. These leather bottles are supposed,by a sacred historian, not only to be frequently rent, when grownold and much used, hut also to he capable of being repaired(Josh. ix. 4.) Modern travellers, as will as ancient authors,frequently take notice of these leathern bottles. The Arabs , saysSir John Chardin , and all those who lead a wandering l'fe, keeptheir water, milk, and other liquors, in these bottles, the man-ner of repairing which he also describes. The' ‘-'vr, accordingto this writer, to preserve their contents mere fresh than in anyother way. They are made, he says, of goat-skins: wlu n theanimal is killed, they cut off its feet and its head, and in thismanner they draw it out of the skin without opening the belly.They afterwards sew- up the places w here the h gs were cut off,and the tail, and when it is filled, they tic it about the nock.Thesp nations, and the country-people of Persia , never go a jour-ney without a small leathern bottle hanging by their side hketiscrip. The great leathern bottles are made of the skin of a lie-goat, and tl;e small ones, that serve instead of a bottle of wateron the road, are made of a kid’s skin. In speaking of meTer-sians, the same traveller says, that they use leattn-rr b»ules, andfind them useful in keeping water Iresli, especially if people,when they travel, take care to moistt n them, wherever they findwater. The evaporation thus furnished serves also to keep thewater cool. He says, that the disagreeable taste of the leather istaken off, by causing it to imbibe rose-water when it is new, andbefore it is applied to use. Formerly, it is said, the Persians per-fumed these leathern vessels with mastir, or with incense. Fromhim also we learn, that they put into these goatskin, and kid-skinvessels every tiling which they want to carry to a distante in th eEast, whether dry or liquid ; they are thus preserved fresher thanif they were conveyed in boxes or pots ; the ants and other in-sects are prevented from getting among them, and they are thuskept free from dust ; and tor hese reasons butter, honey, cheese,and other such aliments, are incloied in vessels made of the skinsof these animals. Accordingly the things, particularly the balm

and