B O E 



tent ; leaves ovate, obtufe ; umbels fmall, fomewhat In 

 heads, lateral." A native of South America. 



Propagation and Culture. None but the firft, third, fourth, 

 and fixth, have been cultivated in England. They will not 

 thrive in the open air, but mull be raifed from feeds, and 

 treated like other tender exotic plants. The firft three are 

 annual, and when they grow too tall to remain under a com- 

 mon frame, may be planted in a warm border, where, if the 

 feafon prove favourable, they* ripen their feeds ; but a plant 

 or two fhould always be placed in the ftove, to enfure a fuc- 

 ceflion of feeds. The fourth, which is perennial, may be 

 preferved in a warm ftove two or three years. See Martyn's 

 Miller. 



BOERN^R, Frederic, in Biography, profefTor in 

 medicine at the univerfity of Wittcmburg, in Saxony, and 

 an aftive member of the Acad. Nat. Curiof. received his 

 education at Leipfic, where he was born, June in, 1723. 

 He publiftied feveral dilfertations on medical fubjccis, but 

 his principal work is " Noclcs guelphicae, five opufcula me- 

 dico-literaria," Roftock, 175J, 8vo. He died June 1761. 

 Eloy. Dia. Hift. 



BOERNERIANUS Codex, in BMca! Hiflory, a MS. 

 of part of the N. T. noted G, in the fecond part of Wct- 

 fkin's N. T. It belonged to Dr. C. F. Boerner, was col- 

 lated bv Kuftt^r, and defcribed in the preface to his edition 

 of Mill's Greek Tcftament. It contains the epiftles of St. 

 Paul, that to the Hebrews excepted, which was formerly 

 rejefted by the church of Rome ; it is written in Greek and 

 Latin, according to one of thofe veriions, which were in 

 life before the time of Jerom. The Latin is interlined be- 

 tween the Greek, written over the text, of which it is a 

 trandation. Stemmler fuppofes that the Latin was written 

 fince the Greek ; but profeflbr Matthai, who publiflied this 

 MS. at MeilTen in Saxony in 1791, fuggefts, that an unifor- 

 mity in the hand-writing, and a fimilarity in the colour of 

 the ink evince, that both the Greek and Latin texts pro- 

 ceeded from the fame tranfcriber. That it is an ancient 

 MS. appears, fays Michaelis, from the form of the charac- 

 ters, and the want of accents and marks of afpiration. It 

 feemsto have been written in an age when the tranfition was 

 making from the uncial to the fmall charafters ; and from the 

 correfpoudence of the letters r, s, and t, in the Latin tranfla- 

 tion, to that form which is found in the Anglo-Saxon al- 

 phabet it is inferred, that this MS. was written in the Well 

 of Europe, and probably between the 8th and 1 2th centuries. 

 This MS. is preferved at prefent in the eleftoral library at 

 Drcfden : and a copy of it is kept in the library of Trinity 

 college, Cambridge, among the books and MSS. that were 

 left by Dr. Bentley. Michaelis on the N. T. by Marfh, 

 vol ii- and iii. 



BOERO, in Geography. .See Burro. 



BOESCHOT, a town of Brabant, on the river Ncthe ; 

 12 miles N. E. of Malines. 



BOESEROENS, or Budgeroons, three fmall unin- 

 habited iflets of the Eaft Indies, fituated in the ftrait that 

 lies between the ifland Saleyer and^the point of Celebes, called 

 LaflTem. Thefe three iflands almoft block up the paflage 

 between the fouthern part of Celebes and the northern part 

 of Saleyer, the whole fpace between which is about a 

 league and a half. The ftrait is pafltd between the fouth- 

 ernmoft and middlemoft, or between the latter, and the 

 northernmoft of the Budgeroons. This is one of the moll 

 dangerous parts of the navigation for fliips failing to or from 

 the Moluccas, or fpice iflands ; and it cannot be avoided 

 without going round to the fouth of Salevcr, which is a 

 much more dangerous route, on account of the great num- 

 ber of fhoals and funken rocks, which abound there, and 

 are not accurately laid down in the charts. 



B O E 



BOESIPPO. SeeB;Esippo. 



BOETHICUS, in Entomology, s. fpecies of Hesperia, 

 (Pleb. Rur. Linn.) that inhabits India. The wings 

 are tailed, blueifh-brown, pale afli colour beneath, and un- 

 dulated with whitilh ; a double ocellar fpot in the anal 

 angle. 



BOTLTHIUS, Anicius Manlius Torquatus Se- 

 VER.INUS, in Biography, defcended from one of the moft il- 

 luilrious confuiar families of Rome, lived in the time of the 

 emperor Zeno, near the end of the 5th century. He was born 

 at Rome about 470, the fame year with Martianus Capella, 

 another Rom.an writer on mufic. He is faid to have fpent 

 18 years in the fchools of Athens, purfuing the ftudy of 

 philofophy under Proclus ; others, however, have queftioned 

 this faft, and it has generally been allowed, lliat the term of 

 18 years is too long. Neverthtlef», his vifit to Athens is jufti- 

 fied by much internal evidence, adduced by Brucker, (Hift. 

 Crit. Philof. t. iii. p. 524 — 527.) and by an exprefllon, 

 though vague and ambiguous, of his friend Cafliodorus, 

 (Var. i 4'.) " longe pofitas Athenas introilli." it is cer- 

 tain, that the erudition of the Latin language was infufficient 

 to fatiate his curiofity, and that he devoted much of his 

 time and attention to the ftudy of Grecian fcience and letters. 

 From a letter of Cafliodorus, written in the name of Theo- 

 doric, it apocars that he had ihehonour of introducing to the 

 Romans, in their own language, the mufic of Pythagoras, the 

 aftronomy of Ptolemy, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the 

 geometry of Euchd, tlie logic of Ariftotle, and the mechanics 

 of Archimedes. He alone was efteemed capable of de- 

 fcribiiig the wonders of art, a fun-dial, a water-clock, and 

 a fphere which reprefcnted the motions of the planets. He 

 commented upon parts of Ariftotle, Cicero, and Porphyry ; 

 and from the commendations which he bcftows upon the 

 latter, as the beft interpreter of the former, he feems to have 

 united the Platonic with the Ariftotelian doclrine. Boethius 

 feems to have been the firft who apphed fcholaftic philofo- 

 phy to the fervice of Chriftian theology ; and he employed 

 liimfelf in defending the orthodox creed againft the Euty- 

 chian, Arian, and Neftorian herefies, in a treatife " De Uni- 

 tate et Uno. In civil life he attained to peculiar honours ; 

 as he was conful in 4S7, and alfo in 510 ; and he was alfo 

 created patrician, and advanced to the poll of mailer of the 

 offices. He married the daughter of his friend, the patrician 

 Symmachus, and he enjoyed the peculiar fatisfaflion of 

 feeing his two fons elevated to the confulate together in 

 522. Few perfons paffed through fife with a greater Ihare 

 of outward rcfpeft and honour ; and few could be more 

 diftinguilhed by the teftimonies that were given to his bene- 

 volence and liberality, his virtue and patriotifm, as well as 

 to his fingular talents and learning. His own affeveration 

 claims our aftent, that he had reluctantly obeyed the divine 

 Plato, who enjoined every virtuoiB citizen to refcue the ftats 

 from the ufurpation of ignorance and vice. For the inte- 

 grity of his public conduft he appeals to the memory of 

 his Ci/untry. His authority had reflrained the pride and 

 oppreffiou of the royal officers ; he had always pitied, :md 

 often relieved, the diflrefs of the provincials, whofe fortunes 

 were exhauiled by public and private rapine ; and he alone 

 had the courage to oppofe the tyrrany of the Barbarians, 

 elated by coiiqueft, excited by avarice, and, as he com^ains» 

 encouraged by impunity. In thefe honourable contefts, his 

 fpirit foared above the confideration of perfonal danger, and 

 perhaps of prudence- In addition to his other learned la- 

 bours, he had firmed a defign of tianflating all the works of 

 Plato and Ariftotle into Latin ; but was prevented from 

 executing his piirpofe by a premature death. Having for 

 fome years enjoyed the favour of Theodoric, the Gothic 

 king of Italy, he was at length fufpefted of being hoilile to 



his 



