B O C 



B O C 



vai'ioni natural! ove fi contengono materle medico fifiche e early in the fprini?, and then plunged into a bed of taaner j 



di botanica," Bologna. The obfervations are 26 in num- bark, and occafionally watered. When the plants are come 



ber, and dedicated", or addrefled to fo many of the author's up, they niould be tranfplanted into feparate pots hlled with 



friends and patrons, amonfr whom are many perfons of high hght ftindy earth, phinged again m the hot bed, and Hiaded 



rank. He is very profiife in hii elo!;ia on ti.e medical virtue from the fun in the heat of the day, till they have taken 



profiile in nu elog 



of many of the plants, which he praifes far beyond their real 

 value. " Tenere oportet," Haller fays, " creduli'.m effe 

 virum, et in viribus mediois plantarum hberalem." " Mulseo 

 di fifica e di efperienze decorato di opervazioni naturali. 



root : at firft they {hoiild be fparingly watered, but when 

 their ftems are become woody, they will require a larger fup- 

 ply. In about two rr.onths, they fhou'd be tranfplanted into 

 larger pots, and plunged again into the bark. In warm 



Venet. 1697, 410. The author here alFumes the name of weather they fliould have a good (hare of freQi air, but 



Sylvio. The obfervations are, as in t!ie former work, dedi- (hould never be taken out of the ftove. 



cated to his noble patrons, and contain ample accounts of 2. B. cordata. " Leaves cordate, a little lobed." A 



the medical virtues of various plants, much beyond what, native of China. Pankk elongated, with fingle, not divided, 



from experience, they have been found to p^ ffefs. Some branches. Calyx -white, as in the preceding fpecies, but 

 fmaller differtations were printed in Mifcel. Naturs Cunof. 



and in the Journal des Savans. On the whole, Boccone ap- 

 pears to have been an induftrious and intelligent writer, and 

 to be defervedly reckoned one of the promoters and im- 

 provers of botany. Haller Bib. Botan. Eloy. Dift. Hill. 

 Med. 



larger. Stamens about 24. S'yh none. Sfigma bilamcllated, 

 fefiile. Willdenort-, by whom it was firil defcribed, as it 

 fhould feem, from a dried fpecimen. 



BOCCORE, in Naturd ITiJloxy, n">0^. q- d- f''* and 

 early fruit, a name given in the kingdoms of Algiers and 

 Tunis, and alfo in Palci'ine, to the early fig, which was 



BOCCONIA, in Botany, (named from Paolo Boccone, produced in June, in Paleitine, though the ktrmez, or 

 M.D.)agenusof theclafsfl'oAfaw^r/amonofjJHM. Nat. Ord. kermoufe, the % properly fo called, which they prefcrved 

 """~ '~ "■ r, • 1 t: . . jji^ij made up into cakes, was rarely ripe before Auguft, and 



fometimes hung upon the trees all the winter. Thcfe latter 

 figs continued a long time upon the tree before they fell off; 

 whereas the boccores dropped as foon as they were ripe, and, 

 according to the appropriate and beautiful allufion of the 

 prophet Nahum, (iii. 12.) fell into the mouth of the eater, 

 upon being fhaken. We learn from Pliny (N. H. 1. xvi. 

 c. 26.) that the fig-tree was bifera, or bore two crops of 

 figs, viz. the boccore, as we may imagine, and kermoufe : and 

 it is well known, that the fruit of thefe prolific trees always 

 precedes the leaves ; confequently, when our Saviour faw 

 one of them, in full vigour, having leaves, (Mark xi. 13.) he 

 miffht, according to the common courie of nature, very 

 jullly look for fruit, and haply find fome boccores, if not 

 fome winter-figs likewife upon it. The time of the year in 

 which the event referred to in this paffage occurred, was un- 



Rhoeades. Pa/^rreracf^, Juflieu. I.in. gen. 591. Reich. 643 

 WiUden. 927. Schi-eb. 803. La Mark, p. 394. Gsrt. 44. 

 JufT. 2 J 6. 



Jiir. Char. Cal. two-leaved. Cor. none. Style bifid. Pm- 

 ta/y*. two-valved. Seed one. 



Gen. Char. PeriantJi two-leaved, ovate, obtufe, concave, 

 caducous. Cor. none. Stamens, before the opening of the 

 flower, from 12 to 24, afterwards feldom more than 10; 

 very (hort. Anther: linear, very large, as long as the calyx. 

 P'l'l. germ roundifh, contracted both ways, large, pedicelled. 

 Style one, bifid. Stigmas fimple, reflex. Pericarp, capfule 

 fubovate, attenuated to each end, comprefled, one- celled, 

 two-valved. Vahes coriaceous, opening at the bafe ; the 

 annular future crowned with the permanent ftyle. Seed one, 

 globular, involved in pulp at its bafe, fixed to the bottom 

 of the capfule. Ohfer-v. The capfule rtfembles a fihcule in 



its general ftiape, and in the permanent future terminated doubtedly three or four days before the paffover, at which 



by the ftyle. our Saviour was crucified, and the paflbver in that year fell in 



Species, l. Boccoma frutefcens, (hrubby bocconia tree, the beginning of April. But it has been inquired, how Chrift 



celandine, or parrot-weed. " Leaves oblong, finuatcd. could expeft to find ripe figs on the tree at the latter end of 



Willd." An ornamental Ihrub, 10 or [2 feet high, with a March •' to which it is replied, becaufe figs were ripe fo 



ftraiorht, hollow trunk filled with pith, covered with a foon in Judaea. It has been fati'^faftorily proved, that the 



fmooth, white bark, and divided near its fummit into feve- harveft in Judaea began at the palfover, and ended at p-n- 



ral cylindric branches. It abounds in all its parts with a tecoft ; and as the barley in Jiidsa was ripe in March, and 



thick, yellowifh juice, fimilar to that of celandine. Leaves the wheat in April, we need not wonder, if there were ripe 



fix or feven inches long, and about three broad ; alternate, figs in the beginning of April too, or before the time of the 



oblong, femipinnatifid ; a little finuated, with oval, un- 

 equally toothed fegments ; green and fmooth above, glau- 

 cous, and a little tomentofe beneath ; on (hort petioles ; 

 flowers fmal!, greenifh, numerous, in large pyramidal, ter- 

 minating panicles ; braftes lanceolate. 



paffover. This, indeed, was th^ iifual tim.e for the firil 

 ripe figs ; and therefore it was natural to exptil that there 

 (liould be figs at this feafon, more efpecially as the tree I'.ad 

 leaves, before which the fruit came forth ; and as the " time 

 of figs" as bifiiop Kidder has (hewn, the ti.v.e of gathering 



It is a native of Mexico and the Weft Indies, where its in ripe figs, was not yet come. When S.. Mark fays, " for 



acid juice is ufedto take offtetters and warts, and is alfo faid the time of figs was not yet," he does not d-rfign to give a 



to be employed in dying yellow. It has an evident affinity with reafon of what he faid in the immediately foregoing claufe, 



the celandines in its fenfible qualities and two-leaved caducous viz. '■ he found nothing but leaves," but he gives a reafon 



calyx,butdiffersremarkably from them in its incomplete flow- of what he faid in the claufe before that, viz. "he came, 



ers and monofpermous fruit. La Mark conjectures that its if haply he might find any thing thereon." And it was a 



want of a corolla is owing to the change of its natural petals good reafon for our Saviour's coming and fecking figs on 



into ftamens : for, he obfeiTC?, after the fall of the true the tree, becaufe the time of gathering them was not yet 



ftamcns, four are conftaiitly left, which continue as long as • come. The tranfpofition above fuppofed, is not uncommon, 



the calvx. See La Mark. Encyc. See Mark xvi. 3,4. Gen. xiii. 10. Jofli. xxii. 22. See 



The fluubby bocconia was firft cultivated in England by Hallett's Notes on Texts of Scripture, vol. ii. p. 115, &c. 



Mr. Miller in 1739, and has flowered and ripened its feeds Harmer's Obferv. vol. i. 



in the phyfic garden at Chelfea. It is propagated by feeds, BOCH, John, in Biography, a modern Latin poet and 



which ftiould be rowu in a pot filled with light frefh earth, claffical fchoiar, was born at Bniflels in 1555 ; and having 



entered 



