B A U 



47 



B A U 



BAUD, a town in the department of Morbihan on the 

 road from Pontivy to Hennebon and Lorient, 15 miles from 

 Pontivy, and 269 miles W. by S. of Paris; 47 53' N. lat., 

 3 l' W. long. It is near the river Evel, which flows into 

 the Blavet a few miles below the town. The population of 

 the commune amounted in 1832 to 5120, but what propor- 

 tion belongs to the town itself we are not aware. 



In the environs of this town is found the staurolite, a 

 mineral composed chiefly of silex and alumine, and whose 

 crystals frequently penetrate each other at right angles or 

 obliquely, so as to form across. It is found also in the ad- 

 jacent department of Finisterre, and in one or two places in 

 the south of France. 



BAUDOUR, a town and commune in the province of 

 Hainault, situated two leagues west of Mons. It is bounded 

 on the north by the commune of Villerot, on the south- 

 west by Hautrage, on the south by Boussu and St. Ghislain, 

 on the south-east by Quaregnon and Jemappes, on the east 

 by Ghlin, and on the north-west by Erbisceul. The surface 

 of this commune is much varied. Near the town, on the 

 west, is a hill covered with wood ; to the south are large 

 meadows, and on the north considerable sand-hills. The 

 central part contains a coal-mine, but it is not worked. 

 Potter's clay is found in considerable quantities, and gives 

 employment to many of the population in making earthen- 

 ware. In the wood of Baudour, already mentioned, is a con- 

 siderable deposit of pulverulent phosphate of iron. The soil 

 generally is of very moderate fertility. Wheat can be grown 

 only in a few spots. The rotation of crops on such lands 

 is wheat, barley, rye, trefoil, oats, and then fallow. Some 

 hops are likewise grown, and different kinds of common 

 fruits. There are two salt-refineries in the commune. 

 Population of the commune, 2577. (Meisser's Dictionnaire 

 Gtagraphique de Hainaut, 1833.) 



BAUGE', a town in France in the department of Maine 

 et Loire, on a cross-road between La Fleche and Saumur, 

 1 miles S. of La Fleche and 1 58 miles S. W. of Paris ; 4 7 

 33' N. lat., 7' W. long. Bauge is on the right bank of 

 the little river Couanon or Coucsnon. Strictly speaking, it 

 consists of two towns, about half a mile or a mile from each 

 other. One of these is named Bauge le Vieil (Old Baugf), 

 or Bauge le Chateau, while the other, which is the principal, 

 has for its distinctive name Bauge la Ville. There are some 

 manufactures of cloth, serge, drugget, sail-cloth, cotton yarn, 

 &c. The chief trade of the place is in its manufactures, and 

 in timber and cattle. There is a fine bridge of freestone over 

 the Couesnon. 



The English, under the Duke of Clarence, brother of 

 Henry V., were defeated before Bauge le Vieil in the year 

 1421. The French were commanded in this encounter by 

 the Mart-dial de la Fayette. There is an hospital in this 

 place ; and also a castle, built by Foulques, or Fulk Nera, 

 in the eleventh century. 



Baug6 is the capital of an arrondissement containing 668 

 square miles, or 427,520 acres, with a population in 1832 of 

 81,690. The population of Baugi', without any distinction 

 of the two towns, is given in the same return at 3553 for the 

 commune, or 3433 for the town itself. We suppose this re- 

 fers only to Baugd la Ville ; for in the Dictionnaire Univer- 

 xel de la France, 1804, the )>opulation of this place is given 

 at 2904. and that of Baugc le Vieil at 1874 : together, 4778. 



In the arrondissement a considerable quantity of paper is 

 made. 



BAUHIN, JOHN, a distinguished botanist, was born at 

 Basle according to Sprengel, or at Lyons according to others, 

 in 1 j41. His father, who was a physician of great reputa- 

 tion, having destined him also for the medical profession, 

 placed him, towards the completion of his studies, with 

 Fuchsius, a botanist of considerable eminence in his day, 

 and afterwards with the celebrated Conrad Gesner, whom 

 he accompanied in his various excursions through Switzer- 

 land. He afterwards visited several other parts of Europe 

 for the purpose of becoming acquainted with their vegetable 

 productions, and with a view to collecting materials for his 

 Historia Piantarum, afterwards published. In 156G he 

 fixed himself at Basle, where he was elected professor of 

 rhetoric. A few years subsequently he was appointed prin- 

 cipal physician of the Duke of Wirtemberg, in which situa- 

 tion he died at Montbclliard in 1C 13. 



During his life he published little of importance, but he 

 occupied himself with great industry in reducing the scat- 

 tered knowledge of the botanists of his day into a single and 

 connected history of the whole vegetable kingdom, which 



he arranged upon the plan sketched out by Lovel. This work 

 was not printed till nearly forty years after his death, in 3 

 vols. folio, published at Yverdun in 1650-1, under the care 

 of Dr. Chalre, his brother-in-law. This work, although by 

 no means free from errors, was a most important performance 

 for the time when it appeared, and may be considered the 

 first step towards reducing systematical botany into order. 

 It is now consulted only by those who are curious in the 

 history of botanical discovery, but it will always remain 

 the key to the botanical works which preceded it. In the 

 words of Sprengel, the author deserves great praise for his 

 diligence in collecting and describing plants, disentangling 

 their synonyms, and ascertaining with precision their native 

 places. 



BAUHIN, GASPARD, the brother of John, was bom at 

 Basle in 1560. After receiving the usual college education, 

 he visited several parts of Europe, with a view to examine 

 their vegetable productions, and to render himself conversant 

 with the state of medical science. Upon his return to Basle, 

 he appears to have gained great reputation as a learned 

 man and a skilful naturalist, and he had honours showered 

 upon him with a profusion which marks strongly the force 

 of public opinion in his favour. We find him described 

 as holding the offices of professor of Greek, of anatomy and 

 botany, and of the practice of medicine, dean of the faculty 

 of medicine, chief physician to the town, and rector of the 

 university. He died in 1624. 



His works consist of several medical treatises, especially 

 of a set of anatomical plates, partly original and partly- 

 copied from Vesalius and Eustachius ; but his reputation 

 chiefly depends upon his botanical publications. He ap- 

 pears to have been better furnished with materials than his 

 brother John, and to have had more command of good artists 

 for embellishing his works, which consist partly of descrip- 

 tions and figures of new plants, in his Phytopinax, pub- 

 lished at Basle in 4to., 1596, and in the Prodromes Theatri 

 Botanici, which appeared at Frankfort in 1 620 ; and partly 

 of collections of the synonyms of the botanical writers who 

 had preceded him. The latter appeared in his Pinax Theatri 

 Botanici in 1623, of which a second edition was published 

 in 1671, and which is a complete key to the knowledge of 

 the day. He also commenced a very important work, in 

 which all the plants at that time known were to be reduced 

 to the natural orders ; but of this, called Theatrum Botani- 

 cum, one volume only was published, containing the grasses, 

 sedges, and liliaceous plants. He also published a catalogue 

 of the plants growing wild about Basle, a work which both 

 Haller and Sprengel describe as being remarkably complete. 

 Although the writings of the two Bauhins are now little 

 consulted, except by those who occupy themselves with the 

 not very important subject of the history of European species, 

 they must be considered as men who, by their zeal, learn- 

 ing, and good sense, aided by unwearied industry, have 

 largely contributed to the .advance of botany, and have been 

 surpassed by no one, unless by Linnaeus, in their own de- 

 partment of the science. They do not appear, however, to 

 have been men of much originality of mind, or to have in 

 any way extended the sphere of botanical science : they can 

 only be considered useful pioneers, but as such they are 

 entitled to the gratitude of posterity ; for, as De Candolle 

 has well remarked, if they did not succeed in discovering 

 any sufficiently methodical manner of classifying their 

 knowledge, they at least rendered tlie want of some fiood 

 classification more apparent than it had ever been before. 



BAUHI'NIA.a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Leguminosm. Linnaeus applied the name very happily 

 to commemorate the merits of the two Bauhins, for the genus 

 is remarkable for its leaves being generally divided into two 

 twin lobes. 



The species arc usually twining plants, found in the woods 

 of hot countries, and often stretching from tree to tree like 

 living cables, forming with other plants an almost insur- 

 mountable obstacle to the traveller who would penetrate the 

 recesses of a tropical forest. Some of them, however, are 

 small trees, as for example B. porruta, which is called in 

 Jamaica mountain ebony, because its wood is sheathed with 

 black. Their flowers are often very beautiful ; for which 

 reason they have long been cultivated in the hot-houses of 

 Europe, but they are too impatient of the wretched treat- 

 ment they receive in the toys which we call stoves to flourish 

 and produce their noble blossoms. So long as plants are 

 cramped in earthen pots, and are treated like the feet of 

 Chinese ladies, we must not hope to seu in Europe those 



