B Y Z 



Tound form from tluir divaricated, little branches, liairy. 

 Calyxes flat, iUllatc ; rays awl-ftaped, very hairy, fprcadm?;. 

 Corolla fmall ; receptacle villous. A native of tlie Canary 

 Idands, where it was found by Maflbn. 5. H. oni;aiiifolwm, 

 THtrit. " Panicles dichotomous ; calyxes feathered ; ienvcs 

 ovate, very entire, vcrv white beneath." Fonnd alfo by 

 Maffon. Tills, and the preceding, to which it is nearly 

 allied, conned the firl't ihree fpecies with the two fucceeding, 

 I'Herit. 6. B. Cdiianenfc, I'Herit. [jMaitha Canar'niijis, 

 Linn. Sp. PI. Pink. t. 307. f. i. Heltiylrophim, Cauar. 

 Comm. Hort. t. rtj.) '•Peduncles dichotomous; Bowers 

 capitate ; le.ives ovate, crenate, rather villous beneatl'." 

 Root perennial. Stem woody, three or four feet high, much 

 branched. Leaves on long petioles, hairy, and aili-colouied 

 on their under fide. PeJunclcs lateral, pretty long, each 

 fullaiiiing four roundifli heads, dividing by pairs, and fpread- 

 ing from each other. Floifcrs white. A native of the 

 Canary Iflands and Madeira. It was cultivated in 17 14, 

 by the duchefs of Beaufort, and has been called by the 

 Englifh gardeners yi/a(/<;ra yI/ij/r;/<-«OH. 7. B./K«<?«/um, I'Herit. 

 <' Peduncles dichotomous ; flowers capitate ; leaves ovate, 

 toothed, fmooth, finely dotted." Segments of the calyx 

 not awl-(hapcd as in all the other fpecies. Native of Ma- 

 deira ; introduced into -England in 1775, by fir Jofeph 

 Banks, bart. 



BYSTRZICA, in Geography, a town of Lithuania, in 

 the palatinate of Wilna ; 24 miles N. E. of VVihia. 



BYSZOW, a town of the duchy of Courland ; 42 miles 

 S. S.W. of Goldingen. 



BYTESCH, a town of Moravia, in the circle of Brunn; 

 17 miles W. N. W. of Brunn. 



BYTIN, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of No- 

 vogrodek ; 40 miles S. S. W. of Novogrodek. 

 BYTTNERA, in Botany. See BiiTTNERA. 

 BYZACIUM, or Bizacium, in yfncienl Geography, 

 one of the two provinces into which Afi-ica Propria was 

 divided: the other being Zeugitania, or the ^c^io Zeugi- 

 TANA. Shaw, in his geographical defcription of the king- 

 dom of Tunis, with which Africa Propria nearly corre- 

 fponds, divides it into the Summer and IVinler circuits ; the 

 former being comprehended under the denomination of 

 Zeugitania, and the latter under that of Byzacium. This 

 province, or at lead the feacoall of it, feems to have been 

 the " Emporia" of Livy and Polybius, fo called on account 

 of the number of its ports appropriated to the commerce ot 

 grain. It was bounded on the noith by the proconfular 

 province ; on the eaft by the Mediterranean (ea and the 

 river Triton ; on the fonth by a part of Libya ; and on 

 the weft; by Nnmidia. Its capital city was /Idnwietum. It 

 was inhabited, according to Pliny (1. x. c. 4.) and Strabo 

 (1. xvii. p. 1 192) by the Libyphsnicians, that is, by a 

 mixture of Aborigines, or native Africans, and Carthagi- 

 nians. Pliny afferts that it was about 250 Roman miles in 

 circumference, and that the foil was fo fertile as to prodnce 

 an hundred fold. With regard to its extent. Dr. Shaw ob- 

 ferves (Travels, p. 72), that if we bound Bizacium to the 

 N. and S. with the parallels of Adrumetum and Tacape, 

 and to the W. with SufFetuIa, one of the weftern cities of it, 

 we (hall have a circuit of at lead 500 Roman miles. Its 

 limits, however, are not ealily defined with precifion, be- 

 caufc the ancients have pafVcd over the interior part of it 

 bordering upon Libya, in a very flight manner, and have 

 very much miftaktn the courfe, magnitude, and fource of 

 the river Triton. However, Byzacium appears not to 

 have differed much in extent and fituation from the prcfent 

 winter circuit of the Tunifeens. As to its fertility. Dr. 

 Shaw obferves, that it falls vaftly fliort of the charafler 

 attnbuted to it by the ancients. The parts which are adja- 



B Y Z 



cent to the fea-coafl: are generally of a dry fardy nr.tnre 

 with no great depth of foil in the beft of them ; and they 

 are planted, for the moft part, with olive-trees, which flou- 

 rirti in great perfeftion : neither is the inlai d country in a 

 niu-h better condition. 



BVZx\NT. See Besant. 



BYZ-^NTINA bktta. See Blatta. 



BYZANTINE Hijlorians, in Lhernry H'ljlory, a dero- 

 m.ination diftinguilhing thofe Greek writers, who flouriflied 

 from the time of Conllantine the Great, in the beginning of 

 tlie 4th century, who transferred the feat of empire from 

 Rome to Conllantinople (Byzantium) A. D. 328, till the 

 year 1453, when the eaftern empire terminated on ocrafion 

 of the capture of Conilantinople by Mahomed II. Of the 

 Greek writer-, to whom tliis appellation is peculiarly ap- 

 propriated, the principal are the following, viz. Zofimus, 

 Zonaras, Nicetas Choniates, Nicephorus Gregoras, Chal- 

 cocondyles, Syucelhis, Thcophanes, Leo Grammaticus, 

 Cedreiius, Glycas, Conftantine Manchr.s, Agathius, Theo- 

 phylaft, Genefius, Coiiftantine Porphyrcgenetta, Anna 

 C'.-miiena, Pliranza, Cinnamus or Sinnamus, George Acro- 

 polita, George Pachymer, Jo. Caiitacuzenus, G. Codinus, 

 M. Ducas, and Procopius. The whole feries of Byzantine 

 writers comprifed in 36 volumes, fol. has giadually ifTued 

 (A. D. 1648, Jcc.) from the royal prefs of the Louvre, 

 with fome collateral aid from Rome and Ltipfic ; but the 

 lall edition or that of Venice in 28 vols. fol. A. D. 1729, 

 &c. though cheaper and more copious, is not lefs inferior 

 ill cnrreftnefs than in magriticence to that of Paris. The 

 merits of the French editors are various ; but the value of 

 Anna Comnena, Cinnamus, Sec. is enlianced by the hillori- 

 cal notes of Charles du Frefne du Cange. Fab. Bib. 

 Graec. 1. v. c. 5. tom. vi. p. 229, &c. 



Byzantine MS., in BtUical Hi/lory, a Greek MS. 

 containing the four Gofpels, collated by Wetftein and noted 

 86 in the finl part of his N. T. Its age is not afcertained; 

 it was purchafed by Alexius Comncnus II., in ii8j ; and 

 preferved at Prelburg. 



BYZANTIUM, in ytncieiU Geography, now known by 

 the name of Conjlantliiople, and called by the Turks Stam- 

 houl, or IJlambol, a Turkifli corruption of £>; t>i» 7ro^^», a 

 ciry of Thrace, fituated in a promontory nearly of a trian- 

 gular form. The obtufe point of the unequal triangle, 

 which reprefento the figure of Conftantinople in its prefent 

 extent, advances towards the eaft, and the fhores of Afia, 

 meeting and repelling the waves of the Thracian Bofphorus. 

 The northern fide of the city is bounded by the harbour ; 

 and the fouthern is waftied by the Propontis, or fca of 

 Marmara. The bafis of the triangle is oppofed to the weft, 

 and terminates the continent of Europe. On the point 

 of the promontory flood the citadel. The walls of the city 

 were built of large fquare ilones, fo jointed as apparently to 

 form only a fingle block ; they were much loftier on the 

 land's fide than towards the water, being naturally defended 

 by the waves, and in fome places by the rocks, on which 

 they were built, and which projcCl into the fea. This city, 

 befidcs a gymnafuim, and Icveral kinds of public edifices, 

 pofleffed all the conveniencies which a rich and numerous 

 people were able to procure. They affembled in a forum, 

 ipacious enough to contain a fmall army ranged in order of 

 battle : and there they confirmed or rejefted the decrees of 

 their fenate. The territory of Byzantium produced abund- 

 ance of grain and fruits ; but it was expolcd to the frequent 

 incurfions of the Thracians, who inhabited the adj< ..ling 

 villages. The harbour fupplied a vaft quantity of fi'h in 

 autumn, when they dcfcended from the Euxine into the 

 lower feas, and alfo iu the fpring, on their return to the 

 Pontus. This fifhery, and the curing of the fifh, furni.'hed 



large 



