B A S 



ananent, clofed, flefhy, sounterfeiting a beny. Seed, Gngle, 

 roundifh. 



EfT. Char. Cal. none. Cor. fever-cleft; two oppofite 

 diviiions (horter, at length berried. Sred, one. 



Species, i. B. rnbra, red Malabar night -fhade, cufciita 

 Lin.hort. Cliff. 39. Gandola rubra, Rumph. Amb. t. 154. 

 f. 2. "Leaves flat; peduncles fimple." It has thick, 

 ftrong, fucCulent ftalks and leaves, of a deep purple colour; 

 climbing to the height of eight or ten feet, and producing 

 many fide-btanches; in the bnrk-ilove living through the 

 winter, and producing great quantities of flowers and feeds. 

 The fruit 13 a fort of fpurious berry, of a very dark red 

 colour, a little flatted, furrowed crofs-vvife at top, and can- 

 taining a fingle nut. A native of'the Eafc Indies, Aia- 

 boina, Japan, &c. ; and cultivated, in 1739, by Miller. 

 From the berries a beautiful colour is drawn, but when ufed 

 for painting, it changes to a pale colour ; the juice is faid to 

 be ufed for ftaining callicoes in India. 2. B. aJla, white 

 Malabar night-fhade, Gandola alba, Rumph. Amb. Fluk. 

 Aim. t. 6:;. f. i. Mnrafakki, K:empf. Amaen. 784. T:ie 

 ftalk fmailcr, the leaves oblong and flaccid, and the flowers 

 and fruit fmaller than in the foregoing. Miller raifcd from 

 feeds, fent by Juffieu,' two varieties; one with purple leaves 

 and ftalks, the other having leaves variegated with white. 

 Cultivated by bifliop Compton in 169I. A native of China 

 and Amboina. \. B. hic'ula, fliining Malabar night-fliade ; 

 "leaves fubcordate; peduncles crowded, branching." A 

 native of the Eaft Indies. 4. B. mgra, black Malabar night- 

 ftiade ; " leaves round-ovate; fpikes lateral." Stem peren- 

 nial, twining, flender, round, fucculent, branched; leaves 

 thick, fmooth, entire, alternate, petioled; flowers purple and 

 white, lateral, few, in long, folitary fpikes. Calyx three, 

 roundifli, acuminate, very fmall fcales; corolla one-petalled, 

 with a fhort fwelling tube, and a fix-clcft border; germ four- 

 lobed ; ilyles (horter than the ftahiens ; berry roundifli, deep 

 black, fmall, four-lobed, with four blunt concave clefts at 

 top. Loureiro apprehends, that the berry is formed from 

 the germ, and not from the corolla. He thinks that this 

 plant is the fame with the " Gandola alba" of Rumphius ; 

 but diff'erent from the B. alia of Linnxus. Perhaps none of 

 thefe are fpecifically dillinft. A native of China and Cochin, 

 in the hedges and fences of their gardens. 



Propagation. Thefe plants are propagated by feeds, fown 

 on a hot-bed in the fpi'ing, and planted, when fit to remove, 

 each in a feparate pot, filled with rich earth, and plunged in 

 a tan-bed, where they mufl: be treated like other exotics. 

 They may be alfo propagated by cuttings, which fliould be 

 laid to dry for a day or two after being feparated from the 

 plant, before they are planted, that the wound m.ay heal; 

 otherwife they will rot. Thefe fliould be treated in the fame 

 manner with the feedling plants. Thefe plants flowei- from 

 June to autumn, and the feeds ripen in September and 

 December. Martyn's Miller's Didt. 



BA.SELLI, BENNET,in Biography, fon of Mark Bafelli, 

 phyilcian of Bergamo, a town in the Venetian territories, 

 ftudicd anatomy and medicine at Padua, affiiled by Fabri- 

 cius ab aqua pendente, and other celebrated mailers, under 

 whom he is faid to have made great proficiency in the 

 knowledge of his profcfllon. Returning to Venice in T594, 

 he was refiifed admiflion into the college of phylicians there, 

 on account of his praftifmg furgery jointly with medicine. 

 Irritated by the injullice, as he thought it, of the law by 

 which he was rejefted, he publillud at Bergamo, in 1604, a 

 defence of furgery, under the title of " Apologise, qua pro 

 chirurgne nobilitate Ilrenue pugnatur, libri tres, 4to. Floy. 

 Dia. Hill. 



BASEJSJENT, in Archiu3iire. Stereobata. Stylobata. 



B A S 



Soubaflement, Fr. The lower part or ftory of a building 

 when it is in the form of a pedcftal, with a bafe or pHutk 

 die, and cornice or plat-band. 



In the Roman antiquities, the temples are generally raifed 

 on a bafement which has exaftly the members and propor- 

 tions of a pedefi^al to the columns of the portico ; but in 

 modern architefture, the bafement coniUtuting the lower 

 ftory of a habitation has its proportions regulated by the 

 nature of the apartments which it contains. The Italian 

 palaces have frequently the fummer habitations on the bafe- 

 ment, which in that cafe is often as high as the principal 

 ftory ; but vthen it only contains offices, it fometimes does 

 not exceed one half of that height. Thefe proportions may 

 be confidered as extremes, which it will not be proper to 

 exceed ; for the principal iiory lofes ito importance when too 

 much elevated, while a very low bafement will not admit 

 any tolerable proporlions of windows and doors. 



Bafements are commonly decorated with ruftics of vari- 

 ous kinds ; they are crowned witli a cornice or plat-band, 

 and fupported on a bafe or focle. The height of the 

 ruftics, including the joint, fliould never be lei's than one 

 module of the order of the principal ftory, neither ftiould 

 it much exceed this meafure ; the plat-band (hould be the 

 fame height as a rulHc, and the focle or plinth rather more. 

 V\'hen the bafement is finiflied with a cornice, it fhould alfo 

 have a regular moulded bafe ; the height of the cornice may- 

 be about one fevcnteenth of the whole balement, and the 

 bafe about twice as much. Chamber's Civil Architetlure. 

 Defgodetz. edif. de Rom.e. 



BASENTELLE, in Geography, a town of Italy, in 

 Calabria, where the emperor Otho II. was vanquiihed and 

 made prifoner. 



BASHARIANS, a feft of Mahometans, being a branch 

 or fubdiviiion of the Motazalites. 



The Balharians are thofe who maintain the tenets of 

 Baftiar Ebn Motamer, a principal man among the Motaza- 

 lites, who varied, in fome points, from the general tenets of 

 the feft, as extending man's free agency to a great length, 

 even to the making him independent. He afferted, that 

 God is not always obliged to do that which is beft ; for 

 that, if he pleafed, he could make all men true believers. 

 Accordingly he taught, that God might doom an infant to 

 eternal punifliment ; but taught at the fame time, that he 

 would be unjuft in fo doing. Thefe feflaries alfo held, 

 that if a man repent of a mortal fin and afterwards return 

 to it, he will be hable to fuffer the punifliment due to the 

 former tranfgreffion. Vide Sale's Prehm. Difc. to the Ko- 

 ran, p. 162. 



BASHAW, Pascha, or Pacha, a Turkilh governor 

 of a province, city, or other didritl. The Arabs pronounce 

 it Bafhaw ; but the word is Turkifli, and properly Pafliaw, 

 denoting viceroy ; whence is derived Pacha. As fome of 

 the provinces of the Tiirkhh empire are too extenfive for the 

 government of the Pacha, this officer has a variety of fub- 

 dekgates ; but it is in reality the fultan wno diflates and 

 commands, under the varied names of Pacha, Motfallam, 

 Kaiem-Makam, and Aga ; nor is there one in this defcend- 

 ing fcale, even to the loweft Utlibaftie, who does not repre- 

 fent him. 



All Egypt is, on the part of the grand feignior, governed 

 bv a balhaw ; who has in reality but ht'le power, but feenis 

 principally to be nitant for the means ot communicating to 

 his divan of beys, and to the divans of tie fcveral military 

 ogiacs (that is, their bodies), the orders of the grand feigni- 

 or, and to fee that they be executed by the proper officers. 

 _ When Selim, fultan of the Ottomans, put a period to 

 the dynafty of the Mamlouks in 1J17, he was fenfible that 

 5 A 2 it" 



