BLA 



BLA 



off the tops and roots of the plants to be 

 blanched, they plant them in trenches 

 about ten inches wide, and as many deep, 

 more or less, as is judged necessary ; as 

 they grow up, care is taken to cover 

 them with earth, within four or five in- 

 ches of their tops : this is repeated, from 

 time to time, for five or six weeks, in 

 which time they will be fit for use, and 

 of a whitish colour, where covered by the 

 earth. 



BLANK, in commerce, a void or un- 

 written place, which merchants some- 

 times leave in their day-books or jour- 

 nals. It is also a piece of paper, at the 

 bottom of which a person has signed his 

 name, the rest being 1 void. These are 

 commonly intrusted into the hands of ar- 

 biters, to be filled up as they shall think 

 proper, to terminate any dispute or law- 

 suit. 



BLAXK verse, in the modern poetry, 

 that composed of a certain number of 

 syllables, without the assistance of rhyme. 

 See POETRY. 



BLASIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Cryptogamia Hepaticae class and order. 

 Male solitary ; imbedded in the frond : 

 female no calyx : capsule imbedded in the 

 frond, oblique, one-celled, with a tubular 

 mouth ; seeds numerous. There is one 

 species, a native of England. 



BLASPHEMY, an indignity or injury 

 offered to the Almighty, by denying what 

 is his due, and of right belonging to him ; 

 or by attributing to the creature that 

 which is due only to the creator. 



Blasphemy, among the Jews, was pun- 

 ished by stoning the offender to death. 

 With us, it is punishable at common law, 

 by fine and pillory. And by a statute of 

 William III. if any person shall, by writ- 

 ing 1 or speaking-, deny any of the persons 

 in the Trinity, he shall be incapable of 

 any office ; and for the second offence, 

 be disabled to sue in any actions, to be an 

 executor, &c. 



BLAST, in a general sense, denotes 

 any violent explosion of air, whether oc- 

 casioned by gunpowder, or by the action 

 of a pair of bellows. 



BLAST, a disease in grain, trees, &c. 

 The sugar cane, in the West Indies, is 

 very subject to a disease of this kind, oc- 

 casioned perhaps by one or more species 

 of the aphides. The disease is distin- 

 guished into the black and yellow : the 

 latter is the most destructive. It con- 

 sists of insects invisible to the naked eye, 

 whose proper food is the juice of the 

 cane, in search of which they wound the 

 tender blades, and in the end destroy the 

 whole. 



BLASTING, a term used by miners 

 for the tearing up rocks which lie in their 

 way by the force of gunpowder. In order 

 to do this, a long hole is made in the 

 rock, which being charged with gunpow- 

 der, they wall it up ; leaving only a touch- 

 hole, with a match to fire the charge. 



BLASTING of -wood, the rending in pieces 

 logs of wood, such as roots of trees, &.c. 

 by means of gunpowder. A method has 

 been lately described by Mr. Knight, 

 which is simple, and easily effected. The 

 instrument used is a screw, with a small 

 hole drilled through its centre. The 

 head of the screw is formed into two 

 strong horns, for the more ready admis- 

 sion of the lever with which it is to be 

 turned, and a wire, for the purpose of 

 occasionally clearing the touch-hole. 

 When a block of wood is to be broken, 

 a hole is to be bored with an auger to a 

 proper depth, and a charge of gunpowder 

 introduced. The screw is to be turned 

 into the hole till it nearly touches the 

 powder ; a quick match is then to be put 

 down the touch-hole till it reaches the 

 charge. The quick match is eighteen 

 inches long, to afford the operator an op- 

 portunity of retiring, after lighting it, to 

 a place of safety : it is made by steeping- 

 a roll of twine or linen thread in a solu- 

 tion of saltpetre. 



BLATTA, the cock-roach, in natural 

 history, a genus of insects of the order 

 Hemiptera. The generic characters are, 

 head inflected ; antennae setaceous ; 

 wings fiat, subcoriaceous ; thorax nattish, 

 orbicular, margined ; feet formed for 

 running ; hornlets two over the tail. The 

 insects of this genus, and their larvae, wan- 

 der about by night, and secrete themselves 

 by day. They are fond of warmth, and 

 haunt houses, devouring meal, and what- 

 ever provisions they can get at : they 

 run with great celerity, and are destroy- 

 ed by the fumes of charcoal. In hot cli- 

 mates they are a great pest to society, 

 by not only devouring whatever they can 

 get at, but some of the species leave a 

 very unpleasant smell, which is apt to re- 

 main a considerable time on the articles 

 which they have passed over. The largest 

 of the genus is, as its name imports, the 

 B. gigantea, a native of many of the 

 warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and South 

 America, of which the following account 

 is given by Drury in his " Exotic Insects." 

 " The cock-roach," says he, " are a race 

 of pestiferous beings, equally noisome 

 and mischievous to natives and strangers, 

 but particularly to collectors. These nas- 

 ty and voracious insects fly out in the 

 evenings, and commit monstrous depreda- 



