B A S 



B A S 



tree, has oblong leaves, and a corolla with a very protube- 

 rant tube. It is a native of the mountainous parts of the 

 Circars and of Bengal, where it forms a middling-sized tree 

 Its wood is hard and strong, and proper for the naves o; 

 wheels ; its flowers are eaten raw by the natives and by 

 jackals, and they yield by distillation a strong intoxicating 

 spirit. From their seeds a considerable quantity of greenish 

 yellow oil is obtained, which is found useful for the supply 

 of lamps ; it is, however, inferior to that of the last species. 

 It is curious that this oil stains linen or woollen cloth as 

 animal oil does, while the fatty substance of the B. buty- 

 racea possesses no such property, but when rubbed on cloth 

 leaves no trace behind. 



A fourth species is believed to be the Shea-tree, or African 

 butter-plant, which is so very important an article of African 

 internal commerce ; and which it would apparently be ex- 

 tremely desirable to introduce into the West Indies and 

 Bengal, a"s a new source of internal wealth. This is the 

 plant which is frequently spoken of by Park, particularly at 

 pages 202 and 203 of his Travels in Africa: 



' The people were everywhere employed in collecting tne 

 fruit of the shea-trees, from which they prepare a vegetable 

 butter, mentioned in the former part of this work. These 

 trees grow in great abundance all over this part of Bambarra. 

 They are not planted by the natives, but are found growing 

 naturally in the woods ; and in clearing wood-land for culti- 

 vation every tree is cut down but the shea. The tree itself 

 very much resembles the American oak, and the fruit, from 

 the kernel of which, first dried in the sun, the butter is pre- 

 pared, by boiling the kernel in water, has somewhat the ap- 

 pearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel U enveloped in a 

 sweet pulp, under a thin green rind ; and the butter pro- 

 duced from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the 

 whole year without salt, is whiter, firmer, and, to my 

 palate, of a richer flavour than the best butter I ever tasted 

 made of cow's milk. The growth and preparation of this 

 commodity seem to be amongst the first objects of African 

 industry in this and the neighbouring states, and it consti- 

 tutes a main article of their inland commerce. 



BASSIGNY, in France, a district partly included in the 

 former province of Champagne, and partly in Le Barrois, 

 now forming part of the department of Haute Manic. It 

 was bounded on the north by the district of Vallage in 

 Champagne, on the east by Le Barrois and La Tranche 

 Comt<:, on the south by Bourgogne, or Burgundy, and on the 

 west by Champagne. It was, according to Expilly (Dic- 

 tionnaire de Gaules, 1762), 16 leagues, or 44 miles long, 

 and 13 leagues, or 35 miles broad ; but he does not state in 

 what direction these dimensions were taken. The superficial 

 contents he gives at 155 square leagues*, or 1184 square 

 miles. In the Dictinnnaire Universal de la France, the 

 greatest length is given at 20 leagues, or 55 miles, from 

 north to south, and the greatest breadth at 16 leagues, or 

 44 miles; and these dimensions are independent of a small 

 portion of the district separated from the rest by a part of 

 the province of Burgundy. Several important streams, as 

 the Meusc and the Aube, take their rise in this district. The 

 surface is varied with hills and plains. The air is temperate 

 and healthy, and the soil produces corn, wine, and fruit. 

 There is a considerable extent of wood, and good pasture 

 land. Game, poultry, and fish are abundant. 



There are the vestiges of several Roman roads in this 

 country. In the time of the Romans, Bassigny was inha- 

 bited by the tribe of the Lingones, from whom the city of 

 Langres derives its name. Langres (population in 1832, 

 59CO for the town, or 7460 for the commune) was considered 

 as the capital, but Chaumont (population in 1832, 6104 for 

 the town, or 6.118 for the whole commune) disputed this 

 title with it. The most important places after these are 

 Montigny le Roi and Nogent le Roi (population in 1832, 

 2314 for the town, or 2401 for the whole commune), Le Val 

 rtes Ecoliers, and Bourbon les Bains. The last-mentioned 

 town contains about 3500 inhabitants, and is celebrated for 

 its mineral waters, and its vast military hospital for more 

 than 500 men. [Sec LANORKS, CHAUMONT, and BOURBON 

 LHS BAINS.] (l)ictinnnnire Universe! de la France; Ex- 

 pilly, Diclionnaire des Gaules, fyc.) 



BASSO-RILIEVO. The Italian term hasso-rilievo, or 

 the French bas-relief, is commonly applied to any work of 

 iculpture connected more or less with a plane surface or back- 

 ground, and in this general sense is opposed to insulated 



The ftnuanu,,,,!;, OT gommoi, league of the French, is the twenty fifth 

 put via. 



detached figures, or sculpture in the round. In its more par- 

 ticular meaning basso-rilievo, low or flat relief, is "Usually 

 appropriated to figures which have a very slight projection 

 from the ground. Alto-rilievo, on the other hand, is not 

 only rounded to the full bulk, but has generally some portions 

 of the figures quite detached; and mezzo-rilievo (a style 

 between the two), although sometimes rounded to a con- 

 siderable butk, has no part entirely unconnected with the 

 plane surface or ground. A more accurate definition of the 

 styles to which these designations refer will result from the 

 explanations that follow. The terms used by the Greeks 

 and Romans to distinguish these kinds of relief cannot per- 

 haps be determined with complete accuracy ; and it may be 

 here remarked, that those writers are mistaken who sup- 

 pose the word Toreutike (ropsi/rucij) to have been applied 

 by the Greeks exclusively to alto-rilievo, since Heyne, and 

 indeed other writers before him, have proved that the term 

 was appropriated to carving, and chiefly chasing in metal, 

 in any kind of relief. The Latin word corresponding with it 

 is ceslaiura. The Greeks seem to have employed the term 

 anaglypta to denote works in relief in general ; and the 

 ectypa scalptnra of Pliny (xxxvii. 10) also means work in 

 relief. The term glypta (from yXu^w, to cut into, to hollow 

 out), with other words formed from the same verb, appears 

 to denote sculpture in the concave sense, intaglio. He- 

 rodotus, in a passage of his second book (cap. 138), where 

 we have little doubt that he is speaking of the sunk 

 Egyptian reliefs (which will be mentioned in another part 

 of this article), couples a word formed from the verb f\v<j>ii> 

 with the word typus (TVITOS ) : typus itfeelf (perhaps) always 

 means a work in relief properly so called. (See Herod, iii. 

 88. Cicero ad Atticum, i. 10.) Italian writers of the time 

 of Vasari, it appears, used the term mezzo-rilievo for the 

 highest relief, basso-rilievo for the less prominent, and 

 stlaccjqio for the flattest or least raised. Whatever the 

 origin of this kind of sculpture may have been, and there 

 is no doubt of its being very antient, an idea will be best 

 formed of its style, as practised by the Greeks, by supposing 

 it to be derived from, the partial insertion of a statue in a 

 perpendicular plane. Alto-rilievo is often literally nothing 

 more than this. Applied, however, to a flat surface, the 

 disposition of the limbs, and the actions of the figure become 

 necessarily more or less parallel with that surface, in order 

 sufficiently to adhere to it. The attitude is thus, in a cer- 

 tain degree, adapted or selected. In inserting or embedding 

 a figure in a flat ground, it is obvious, that although it may 

 e buried less than half its thickness, as in alto-rilievo, it 

 annot be buried more, nor indeed (the structure of the 

 figure strictly considered) quite so much, without ceasing to 

 present the real boundary or profile of the form. In the less 

 prominent kinds- of nliuvo it is therefore still required that the 

 outline should present the real form, and this principle in its 

 further application excludes, in a great measure, the unreal 

 forms of perspective and foreshortening, which would sup- 

 pose that the objects are no longer parallel with the surface 

 on which they are displayed. Attempts at foreshortening 

 must in most cases fail to satisfy the eye. The work can 

 only be seen in front, and the appearance it presents is 

 therefore required to be at once intelligible, for no uncer- 

 tainty can be removed by an inspection from another point 

 of view, as in walking round a statue. The bulk, or tuick- 

 ness, need not, however, be real, provided it appear so. The 

 compression of the bulk, which constitutes the various de- 

 grees of mezzo and basso rilievo, thus follows the compres- 

 sion or flattening of the action, the characteristic of alto- 

 rilievo. Lastly, the modifications of which this branch of 

 sculpture was susceptible, were adopted, as we shall see, 

 according to the varieties of light, situation, dimensions, 

 and use. 



The Greeks, as a general principle, considered the ground 

 of figures in relief to be the real wall, or whatever the solid 

 plane might be, and not to represent air as if it was a picture. 

 The art with them was thus rather the union of sculpture 

 with architecture than a union of sculpture with the con- 

 ditions of painting. That this was founded on the most ra- 

 tional principles will be evident from a few simple considera- 

 tions. The shadows thrown by figures on the surface from 

 which they project at once betray the solidity of that surface. 

 In the attempt to represent, together with actual projection, 

 the apparent depth of a picture, or to imitate space, figures 

 which are supposed to be remote are reduced in size ; but 

 although thus diminished in form, they cannot have the 

 strength of their light and shade diminished, and if deprived 



