BOS
EOT
Pollux. -Onomaft. I. g. Haft. Hift. Rei Num. T. r. 1. 3.
c. 3. p. 24. feq. See Drachm, Cycl.
It was fo called, as having on it the impreffion of an ox, and
chiefly obtained among the Athenians and Delians; being
fometimes alfo ftruck of gold.
From this arofe the phrafe, bos in lingua, applied to thofe who
had taken bribes to hold their tongue. Erafm. Chiliad. I.
VII. 18.
BOSA, in the Egyptian medicine, denoted a mafs prepared of the flower of thelolium, hemp-feed and water; of the fame in- ebriating virtue with the aflis, or opium. Alpin. de Medic, Egypt. 1. 4. c. 2. p. 121. Caft. Lex. Med. p. no.
BOSCAGE {Cycl.) fometimes denoted a tax or duty laid on wood brought into the city. Du Cange, Gl off. Lat. T. I.
P- 593- BOSCHAS, in zoology, the name of our common wild duck,
called alfo by fome aflbs torquata minor, or the fmaller ring- duck. See the article Duck. BOSCOI, or Bosci, in ecclefiaftical hiftory, denotes a fpecies or tribe of monks in Paleftine, who fed on grafs like the beafts of the field.
The word is Greek, Boa-tan, q. d. grazers ; formed from (3oo-xw, fafo, I feed.
The Bofcoi are ranked among the number of Adamites, not fo much on account of their habit, as food. They took no care about provifion ; but when eating-time came, or any of them was hungry, went into the fields, with each his knife in his hand, and gathered and eat what he could find. Evagr. Hift. Ecclef. I. 1. c. 21. Sozom. Hift. Ecclef. 1 6. c. 33. DuCange, GlofT. Grac. T. r.p. 211. Bibl. Ger. T. 21. p. i^q.Bingb. Orig, Ecclef. 1. 7. c. 2. §. 11. BOSCUS, in antient law writers, fignifies a wood of any kind. The word is alfo written corruptly bufcus, bufcaria, and buf- cale a . It is formed from the Greek, fco-xu, I feed, as ferving for pafture b . In which fenfe, bofcus amounts to the fame with the Italian bofo, and Erench hois — [ a Du Cange, GlofT Lat. T. 1. p. 592. b Cafjhicwve, Orig. p. 25. voc. Bois. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 1128. voc. bofquet.] Bofcus is divided into high wood, or timber, called alfo faltus, and kaut bois ; and coppice, or underwood, fub-bofcus, or fub- bois. Caffeneiwe, Orig. p. 25. voc. bois. BOSPHORICUM Marmor, a name given by the antients to a fpecies of marble, of a yellowifh white colour, with beautiful veins of a fomewhat darker hue ; called alfo, from its tranfpa- rence, pbengites. See Phengites. BOSPHORUS, or Bosporus {Cycl.)— Modern geographers define Bofpborus, m general, a long narrow fca running in be- tween two lands, or feparating two continents, and by which, two feas, or a gulph and a fea, are made to communicate with each other. Ozan. Diet. Math. p. 358. 3n which fenfe, bofpborus amounts to the fame with what we otherwife call an arm of the fea, channel, or ftraight ; the Ita- lians, faro ; the Latins, f return ; the French, pas, ?na?icbe; the Turks, bogaz, &c. Fafcb. Lex. Millt. p. 545. voc. Meer. Au- bth. Diet. Mar. p. no. D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient, p. 210. in voc. Bogaz.
Authors are much divided as to the reafon of the denomination of the Bofpborus of Thrace ; for as to the Cimmerian Bofpbo- rus, it feems to be fo called from its refemblance to the Thra- cian. Pliny indeed allures us, they were both fo denominated, as being narrow enough to be fwam over by cattle 2 .. He adds, that men might hear one another talk, cocks crow, and dogs bark, from one fide of the Thracian Bofpborus to the other, which was not above 500 paces over b ; or, according to Agathcmerus, 750 c ; infomuch that Darius threw a hafty bridge over it for the paiTage of his army. — [ a Plin. Hift. Nat. ]. 6. c. 1. b Idem, 1 4. c. 12. c Agathem. Geogr. 1. 1. c. 3. Hard Not. ad Plin.]
But others affign other origins. See the Cyclopaedia. Some late writers rather fuppofe Bofpborus to have been fo called, becaufe here was antiently the beaft-market. Toumef. Voyag. Let 12. T. 2. p. 6, See alfo Let. 14. p. 61, BOSQUETS, in gardening, a term for groves included in gar- dens.
The word is derived from the Italian, bofebetio, which is a di- minutive of bofo, a wood or grove.
Thefe are fmall Compartments of gardens, which are formed of trees, fhrubs, and tail flowering plants, fet in quarters, and either placed regularly in row-, or difpofed in a more irregu- lar manner. Thefe quarters fhotild be furrounded with ever- green hedges, and the entrances made into porticos with yews. In the infide there muft be fome walks, either ftrait or wind- ing. Thefe, if the quarters are large, fhould be eight foot wide, and laid with turf, and kept well mowed and rolled. The hedges of thefe quarters mould be kept low, that the heads of the fhrubs may be feen from the outfide. There is a great deal of fancy to be employed in the planting thefe bofquets, which fhould be fhewn in letting to view at once fuch fhrubs as have the moft differently fhaped, and differently coloured leaves that may be, as the long, the round, and the jagged, and the various {hades of deep and lighter green, and the mealy or hoary white leaves. Befides this, there is alfo a very great variety of beautiful fruits, which thefe fhrubs produce in autumn, which give a very ele- gant and pleafant profpect even after the leaves are fallen.
, or prominency.
The fhrubs which produce thefe, are, r. the euonymus, or fpindle-tree. 2. the opulus, or water-elder. 3. the cockfpur- hawthorn; and, 4. the flowering- aft, as it is called ; befides an innumerable parcel more. But it is a good rule in this, never to mix the evergreen-trees with thofe which lofe their leaves in winter. Thefe bofquets are only fit for laree gardens. Mill. Gard. Diet, in voc. &
Bofquets are generally laid out into fome regular figure, as a circle, fquare, polygon, or the like, and make a confiderable article in the decoration of a fine garden. Davill. Explic. Term. Architect, p. 429. See Garden. BOSS, orBossE, in fculpture, fignifies relievo, c See Relievo, Cycl.
The word is French, boffe, which fignifies the fame ; whence alfo to embofs. V. Skimi. Etym. in voc. Sec the article Em- BOSsinc, Cycl. Boss of a buckler, among the antients, the umbo, or ^p«*©-, which juts out in the middle. Potter, Archieol. 1. 3. c . 4. T. 2. p. 32. Boss, among bricklayers, denotes a wooden utenfil wherein the labourers put the mortar to be ufed in tyling. It has an iron hook, whereby it may be hung on the laths, or on a ladder. Moxon's Median. Exerc. p. 248. BOSTANGI-Stf/^/, in the Turkifh affairs, an officer in the grand fignior's houfhold, who has the fuperintendence of all the gardens, water-works, and houfes of pleafure, with the workmen employed therein. The poft of boflangi-bafchi, or chief gardener, is one of the moft confiderable in the Turkifh court. He has the emperor's ear, and, on that account, is much courted by all who have bufinefs depending at the Port ; he is governor of all the villages on the channel of the Black fea, and has the command of above ten thoufand bojlongis, or gardeners, in the feraglio, and other places about Con ftantinople. But that which gives him the greateft eclat, is the honour he fure on holding the rudder whenever the fultan takes his plea- has of the water. Toumef. Voyag. Let. 13. T. 2. p. 26. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 1130. BOSTRYCHITES Lapis, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to a ftone fuppofed to contain womens hair included in it : fome have underftood by it, thofe pieces of cryftal which have accidental foulneffes in them, refembling hair, or pieces of hair, caufed by earthy or metalline matter; others call by this name thofe German agates, which contain either the con- fervas or other capillary water-plants, or other foulneffes run- ing into their form : the firft of thefe very frequently have the confervae of a great length, and varioufly undulated and turned about, fo as very elegantly to reprefent a loofely flowing lock of hair. Bostrychites is alfo a name given by fome authors to a fpecies
of pyrites, whofe irradiations were fuppofed to imitate hair. BOTABOTA, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome writ- ers to that fpecies of fea-fwallow, whofe nefts are fo famous n foups in China, and in fome parts of Europe. The nefts are fuppofed to be reftorative, and greatly provocative to venery; for which laft quality it is that the eaftern nations in general are fo fond of them. BOTAGIUM, in middle age writers, a fee paid for wine fold in bot<£, or butts. Du Cange, Gloff Lat. T. 1. p. 661. Wine that taftes of the cask is called vinum botatum. Id. ibid. BOTALE Foramen, in anatomy, an aperture in the heart of a foetus, whereby the blood is enabled to circulate, without go- ing into the lungs, or the left ventricle of the heart. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. i.p. ihji. See Foetus, Heart, Circu- lation, tsV. Cycl. and Suppl. BOTANIST, a perfon who underftands the nature, hiftory, and diftinctions of vegetables, on fettled and certain principles, and can call every plant by a diitinct., proper and intelligible name. Linncsi Fundam. Botan. p. 1. EOTANOPHILI, among the writers on the fubject of vege- tables, thofe who have treated of them, not as botanifts, on their natural and eftablifhed dirtinctions, but in regard to dif- ferent operations, as gardeners, phyficians, life. Linnai Fun- dam. Bot. p. 3. BOTANY (Cycl.) — Authors are divided about the precife ob- ject and extent of botany, which fome will have to include the whole province of plants, in all their ftates, ufes, and rela- tions: others reftrain it to the knowledge of the claffes, ge- nera, fpecies, external figures and defcriptions of plants, ex- clufive of their virtues, which are left to the confederation of phyfic and pharmacy a ; of their origin and generation, which are left to phyfiology ; and of their culture and propagation, which are left to gardening and agriculture b . — [ a Vid. Bibl. Ital. T. 1 1. p. 206, feq. b Du Hamel, Hift. Acad. Scienc. 1. 1. fee. 1. c. 5. p. 11. It. 1. 4. fee. 5. c. 1. p. 346, feq.] Terreflrial Botany, that employed about the plants growing
on the furface of the earth. Marine Botany, that concerned in the confederation of fea-
plants, as fucufes, alcyonia, alga?, C3Y. Subterranean Botany, that about the plants under ground, as the tubera terra, or truffles, bV.
Some call the knowledge of the virtues of plants practical bo- tany a . The antient botany has been much hurt by the Arzbs, by bad verfions, and comments on the Greek naturalifts b ; partly hence, but more from the corrupt ftale of antient copies
and
