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The biumlres are the fume with thofe otherwife denominated ampbifdi. See Amphiscii, Cycl.
EIXA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants ; the characters of which are thefe : the perianthium is flat, fmall, and perma- nent, the whole formed of one fittfe leaf, divided into five feg- ments at the end : the flower is double ; the exterior one is com- pofed of five large, oblong, equal, and coarfe petals ; the inner flower is compofed of five petals alfo ; but they are thinner and finer : the ftamina are a great number of fetaceous filaments, of about half the length of the flower : the anthene are erect : the germen of the piftil is of an oval figure : the ftyle is ca- pillary, and of the length of the ftamina : the ftigma is bifid, compreffed, and parallel: the fruit is a capfule, of an oval cordated form, befet with hairs, and compofed of two valves ; but having only one cell, in which are a number of turbinated feeds, with a truncated umbilicus. Linnm, Gen. Plant, p. 242.
Bixa, in botany, is alfo a name by which fome authors have called the arnotto ; the fame with the crleana and orellana of other writers. f. Bauhhi, Vol. 1. p. 440.
BIZARRE, a term ufed among the florifts for a particular kind of carnation, which has its flowers ftriped or variegated with three or four colours.
BIZE, in zoology, a name by which fome call the pelamys, a fea-fiih, of the fhapc of the tunny, and refembling the young brood of that fifh; but diftinguifhable by its wanting fcales in moft parts of its body. Wtliughby, Hift. Fife. p. 179.
BIZOCHI, orBisocHi, a feci or branch of religious minorites, condemned by feveral popes. Vid. Du Gauge, GlofT. Lat. T. 1. p. 566. Prateol. Elench. Hseref. 1. i.n. 2. p. 101. The I'tzochi were alfo called fratricelli, or fratres de pauper e vita; fome times bichini, or bicchini. See Beguins, Cycl. The name is formed from bifaccus, on account of a double budget or wallet wherewith they begged their living.
BIZZARRO, or con Bizzaria, in the Italian mufic, figni- fies with capricious changes ; fometimes faft, at others flow, foft, ftrotig, &c. at the fancy of the compofer. Broff. Diet. Muf. in voc.
BLACK (Cycl.)— Bodies of a black colour are found more in- flammable, by reafon the rays of light falling on them are not reflected outwards, but enter the body, and are often reflected and refracted within it, till they be ftifled and loft a . They are alfo found lighter, ceteris paribus, than white bodies, be- ing more porous b . It may be added, that cloaths dyed of this colour wear out fafter than of any other, by reafon their fub- ftance is more penetrated and corroded by the vitriol necef- fary to ftrike their dye, than other bodies are by the galls and alum which fuflice for them c .— [ a Newton, Opt. Qu. 6. p. 314. b Ribault 3 ?hy[. P. 2.027.$. 6l - c ^ d - ibid - §• 7 2 s feq.j
The inflammability of black bodies, and their difpofition to conceive heat, beyond thofe of other colours, is eafily evinced. Some appeal to the experiment of a white and a black glove worn in the fame fun ; the confequence will be, a very fen- fibly greater degree of heat in the one hand than the other d . Others alledge the phenomena of burning-glafles, where black bodies are always found to kindle -fooneft v . Mr. Boyle gives other proofs ftill more obvious : he took a large tile, and hav- ing whited over one half of its fuperficies, and blacked the other, expofed it to the fummer-fun ; where having let it lie a convenient time, he found, that whilft the whited part re- mained ftill cool, the black part was grown very hot. For farther fatisfaction, the fame author has fometimes left on the iurface of the tile a part retaining its native red, and expofing all to the fun, has found the latter to have contracted a heat in comparifon of the white part, but inferior to that of the black f . — [J Vid. Beyle, Phil. Work, abridg. T. 1 . p. 144. e Ro- hault. P. 1. c. 27. f Boyle, lib. cit. T. 2. p. 36.] So alfo on his expofing two pieces of filk, one white, the other black, in the fame window to the fun, he often found the lat- ter confiderably heated, when the former has remained cool It is obfervable likewife, that rooms hung with black are not only darker, but warmer than others h . — [s Boyle, ibid. h Id. ibid.]
To all which may he added, that a virtuofo of unfufpected credit allured Mr. Boyle, that, in a hot climate, he had, by carefully blackening the fliells of eggs, and expofing them to the fun, (ecn them thereby wcll-rnafted in afhort time. Boyle, ibid. See alfo Grave/end, Inft. Philof. Newton. §. 1251. p 34.4. Verdt. Phyf. P. 2. c. 10. §. 6. p. 236. Teichm. Inft. Phil. Nat. P. 1. c. 19. p. ri2. Black, in matters of drefs, is the diftinguifhing habit of church- men and mourners. Vid. Potter, Archaeol. Grasc. 1. 4. c. 5. T. 2. p. 196.
Some will have it, that the common people among_ the Ro- mans were cloathed in black ; whence the denomination given them of turba pullaia. Pitifc. Lex. Antiq. T. 2. p. 561. voc. pull at i.
To give the common black colour to glafs, the glaflmakers ufe the following method : take old broken glafs of different co- lours ; grind it to powder, and add to it, by different parcels, a fiifficient quantity of a mixture of two parts ztffer and one part manganefe : when well purified, wcrk it into vcflels, csV. See Colouring of glafs.
Black, in heraldry, is properly called fable. See Sable, Cycl.
Black, in the manege.— A horfe of a deep, mining, and lively black is called a black-more, or coal black '. Horfes / hck all over are commonly reckoned dull and melancholy ; but a white foot, or ftar in the forehead, gives them a degree of fpri^htli- nefs. The Spanifli gravity is faid to be belt pleafcd with thofe intirely black k .— [ * Guill. Gent. Did. P. 1. in voc. fc Farr. Diet, in voc]
-EW-Black is made of the bones of bullocks, cows, &e. well burnt and ground. To be good, it muft be foft and friable, of a gloffy caft. It is in confiderable ufe, though inferior in gobdnefs to ivory black. Savar. Diet. Comm. T- 1. p- B7 r. The invention of bom or ivory black is attributed to Apelles; Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 3^. c. 5. Felib. Princ. de l'Arch. p. 293.
Harts-BLACK, that which remains in the retort after extracting the fpirit, fait, and oil of hartfhorn. This refidue being ground up with water, makes a black not much fliort of that of ivory.
Lamp-BLACK {Cycl.) — There is a finer and brighter kind oUamp or candle-black procured from the fumes of a lamp or candle* gathered by a proper receptacle placed in manner of a canopy over the luminary, and wiped or bruihed off; but it is not procured in quantity fufficient for ordinary ufe. Vid. Park. Art of Japann. c, 5. p. 21.
Soot, or Chh/iney-Bh A ck, is a poor colour ; but ready for paint- ing black draperies in oil. Felib. Princ. de l'Archit, 1. 3. c. 6. p. 299.
Curriers Black fignifies a teint or dye laid on tanned leather; of which there are ufually two, the firft made of galls, alegre, and old iron ; the fecond of galls, copperas, and gum Arabic. Savar. Diet. Comm. T. 1. p. 872. See Currying, Cycl.
BLACKBIRD, merula, in zoology. Seethe article Merul a. The mufic of the blackbird is not its only valuable quality ; for it is a very delicate bird for the table. It builds its neit in woods, very early in the fpring, often in march, while the fnow is on the ground. It generally choofes the ftumps of trees, or thick hedges, for the place. The outfide of the neft is made of dry grafs, flicks, and the fibres of roots of trees : the infide is lined with clay, and formed fo round, that art cannot mend it, They build three or four times in the year* and even oftner than that, if their nefts are taken early from them. The young ones may be eafily raifed with any kind of meat. It fings three or four months in the year : the note is loud, and not very agreeable j but may be much improved by teaching.
Some people are very fond of them as food, and take them alive, and fatten them up ; the way is, to have very lame cages with fome tame ones in them; thefe will teach the new- taken birds to eat, and plenty and variety of food being fet be- fore them, they will foon grow much fatter than when wild. Kircher, in his China illujlrata, ferioufly tells of certain trees, whofe leaves falling into the water of a lake, on the fides of which they grow, become blackbirds. He took this romantic fiory upon credit ; but plays the philofopher in a very idle manner in attempting to account for it, by fuppofing, that it is owing to the feminal parts of fome of the eggs of thofe birds dropped from their nefts, which are fometimes built on thofe trees. The whole truth feems to be no more than this, that the tree eafily fheds its leaves, and its young branches being brittle, are apt alfo to be broken by the winds. The waters are naturally ftrewed with thefe leaves, and, at the breeding- feafon of the birds, their nefts being fometimes thrown down by the breaking of the twigs, the young ones arc feen floating on the water among the leaves ; and the people have been idle enough to fuppofe, that they were formed of them. The firm aficrtions of fome great men about our fhell-fifh in Lancafhire turning into geefe, is a proof, that the general credit of 3 country about a miracle of this kind, does not prove the truth of it. Kircher, China illuftrata.
Black books, a name given to thofe which treat of necromancy, or, as fome call it, nigromancy. See Necromancy, Cycl. The black book of the Englifti monafteries was a detail of the fcandalous enormities practifed in religious houfes, compiled by order of the vihtors under king Henry VIII. to blacken, and thus haften their diflblution. Vid. Dugcl. Monaft. abridg. in Pref. p. 8.
Black canons, a name given to the regular canons of St* Auguf- tine, who wore a black mantle over their furplice, by way of distinction from the prjemonftratenfes. Steph, Suppl. to Dugd. Monaft. T. 1. p. 69.
Black cap, in zoology, a name given by the common people of many counties of England to tht pewit, a bird of the gull-kind. See the article Pewit. Black cap is alfo the common Englifti name for the parus paluf- tris, or marfh titmoufe. The atricipilla, which is a much fcarcer bird, being alfo called in Englifti by the fame name, many have contended for its being very common With us, mif- taking it for this titmoufe. Ray, Ornithol. p. 175. Seethe article Atricipilla. Black diver, in zoology, a name given by many to a fpecies of duck very common about the coafts of Lancafhire, Yorkihire, and fome other counties, and called more generally ihefatcr. It is all over black. See Scoter.
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