224 
B L A 
HA 
B L A 
filled with angular seeds. These seeds are 
covered with a red waxen pulp or pellicle, 
from which the colour called anotta is pre- 
pared. These plants, in the countries where 
they grow, thrive best in a cool rich soil, and 
shoot most luxuriantly near springs and rivu- 
'lets. W ith us, they may be propagated by 
seeds procured from America. These are to 
be sown in pots in the spring, and plunged in 
a bed of tanner’s bark: the plants must after- 
wards be removed into separate pots, and al- 
ways kept in the stove- 
BLACK, something opake, and occasioned 
by the porosity of bodies, that imbibing the 
greater part of the light that falls on them, 
and reflecting little or none, exhibit no co- 
lour. Black bodies are more inflammable 
than others, because the rays of light falling 
on them are not reflected outwards, but 
enter the bodies, and are lost in them. Being 
more porous, they are found cxteris paribus 
to be specifically lighter than any other-co- 
loured bodies. 
The disposition of black bodies to acquire 
heat beyond those of other colours, has 
long been known. If a blackand a white glove 
are worn by the same person in the sun, it 
will be found that the hand with the black 
glove will acquire the greatest degree of 
heat. Dr. Watson, the present bishop of 
Landaft’, covered the bulb of a thermometer 
with a black coating of Indian ink, and the 
mercury presently rose ten degrees. Black 
clothes heat more, and dry sooner in the sun, 
than white clothes : black is therefore a bad 
colour for clothes in hot climates. Count 
Rmnford lias attempted to controvert this 
position, but his experiments do not appear 
decisive. See Philosophical Transactions for 
the year 1804. 
Black, among dyers, one of the five simple 
and mother colours used in dying. See Dy- 
ing. 
Black, German, called by some Frank- 
fort black, is made with the lees of wine, 
burnt, washed afterwards in water, then 
ground in mills made for .that purpose, with 
ivory, bones, or peach-stones, also burnt. It 
comes from Frankfort, Mentz, and Stras- 
bourg, either in lumps or powder ; and must 
be chosen moist, without having been wetted, 
of a line black, soft, friable, light, and with as 
few shining grains as possible. 'Phis black is 
the principal ingredient used by copper-plate 
printers for wojking their engravings. 
■ Black, i-vory, otherwise called velvet- 
black, is burnt Ivory or bones, which, becom- 
ing quite black, and being reduced to thin 
plates, are ground in water, and made into 
troches, to be used by painters, and by jewel- 
lers, who set precious stones, to blacken the 
ground, of the collets, and give the diamonds 
a teint or foil. In order to be good, it ought 
to be tender, friable, and thoroughly ground. 
Black, hart’s, that which femains in the 
retort after the spirits, volatile salt, and oil, 
have been extracted from harts-horn. It 
answers the purposes of, painters almost as 
well as ivory-black. 
Black, Spanish, is nothing but burnt cork: 
it is used in several works, it should be" 
light, and have as few grains of sand -mixed 
with .t as possible. 
Black-, lamp, (originally, perhaps, the 
soot collected from lamps,) is generally pre- 
pared bv melting and purifying rosin or pitch 
i si L»on vessels ; then setting lire to it under 
a chimney, or other place made for the pur- 
pose, lined with sheepskins, &c. to receive the 
vapour or smoke; in this way vast quantities 
of it are prepared at Paris. In England it is 
prepared at the turpentine-houses, from the 
dregs of the resinous matters which are manu- 
factured there ; but the greater part of lamp- 
black is brought from Germany, Sweden, and 
Norway ; where the process, in the prepara- 
tion, is dependant on the manufacture of com- 
mon resin, 
The goodness of lamp-black depends much 
on its lightness, and on the fullness of its co- 
lour. It is used on various occasions, par- 
ticularly in printers’ ink, for which it is 
mixed with oils of turpentine and linseed. A 
patent was taken out some years ago by Mr. 
Row, of Newcastle, for manufacturing lamp- 
black from pit-coal, or any kind of mineral 
and fossil coal, which we conceive must an- 
swer perfectly well. 
Black, currier’s. See Currier. 
BLACKBIRD. SeeTuRDus. 
BLACKCAP. See Motacilla. 
BLACKAMOOR’S head, in chemistry, 
consists of a conical vessel, surrounded with 
another of a cylindrical form, filled with cold 
water, with a cock to draw it ofi'when it be- 
comes too warm. 
BLACK ACT, is so called, having been 
occasioned by some devastations committed 
nearWatham in Hants, by persons in disguise, 
or with their faces blacked; to prevent which it 
is enacted by 31 Geo. II. c. 42. that persons 
hunting armed and disguised, and killing or 
stealing deer, or robbing warrens, or stealing 
fish out of any river, &c. or any person un- 
lawfully hunting in his majesty’s forests, or 
breaking down the head of any fish-pond, or 
killing, &c. of cattle, or cutting down trees, 
or setting fire to house, barn, or wood, or 
shooting at any person, or sending anonymous 
letters, or letters signed with a fictitious name, 
demanding money, Szc. or rescuing such of- 
fenders ; are guilty of felony without benefit 
of clergy. 
BLACK LEAD. Every person who shall 
unlawfully break into any wad-hole of wad, 
or black cawke, commonly called black lead, 
or shall unlawfully take and carry away from 
thence any wad , black cawke, or black lead, 
or shall aid or employ others so to do, shall be 
guilty of felony. 25 Geo. II. c. 10. 
BLACK MAIL, signifies, in the counties of 
Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmore- 
land, and the bishopric of Durham, a certain 
rate of money, corn, cattle, or other conside- 
ration, paid to some inhabitants near the 
borders, to be protec ted from a band of rob- 
bers called moss-troopers. 
Black mail, also signifies the rents for- 
merly paid in provisions of corn and flesh. 
BLACK BURN IA, a genus of thetetan- 
dria monogynia class and order. 'The essen- 
tial character is, calyx four-toothed ; pet. 4 ; 
•anther heart-shaped ; germ, conic ; stigma 
simple ; berry one-seeded. There is one spe- 
cies, a native of Norfolk-island. 
BLADDER, a thin membranoussubstance, 
found in several parts of an animal, serving 
as a receptacle of some juice, or of some li- 
quid excrement, as the urinary bladder, gall 
bladder, & c. See Anatomy: 
BLAD1I IA, a genus of the class and order 
pentandria monogynia. The essential cha- 
racter is, corolla wheel-shaped, deciduous. 
berry containing one arilled seed. There 
are three species, natives of Japan. 
BLrLRlA, in botany, a genus of the le- 
trandria monogynia class and order of plants. 
Its characters are ; that the calyx is quadri- 
partite, the corolla quadrifid, the stamina 
inserted in the receptacle ; arid the fruit a 
capsule, with four cells, containing many 
seeds. There are six species. 
BLAFART in commerce, a small coin, 
current at Cologn, worth something more 
than a farthing of our money. 
BLAIN among farriers, a distemper inci- 
dent to beasts ; being a certain bladder grow - 
ing on the root of the tongue, against the 
wind-pipe, which swells to such a degree as 
to stop the breath. It comes by great chafing 
and heating of the stomach ; and is perceived 
by the beast’s gaping, and holding out his 
tongue, and foaming at the mouth: to cure it, 
cast tne beast, take forth his tongue, and then 
slitting the bladder, wash it gently with vine- 
gar and a little salt. 
BLAKEA, in botany, a genus of the class 
and order dodecandria moticcynia: with a 
calyx composed- of six leaves below, and en- 
tire above; six. petals, and a six-celled poly- 
spermous capsule. There are two species, 
very beautiful shrubs, natives of America and 
the West Indies. 
BLANCHING of copper is done in various 
ways, so as to make it resemble silver. If it 
is done for sale, it is felony by 8 and 9 Wil- 
liam III. ch. xxvi. 
Blanching, in coinage, the operation per- 
formed on the planchets or pieces of silver, 
to give them the requisite lustre and bright- 
ness. They also blanch pieces of plate, 
when they would have them continue white, 
or have only some parts of them burnished. 
Blanching, as it is now practised, is per- 
formed by heating the pieces on a kind of 
peel with a wood-lire, in the manner of a re- 
verberatory ; so that the flame passes over 
the peel. The pieces, being sufficiently heat- 
ed and cooled again, are put successively to 
boil in two pans, which are of copper : in 
these they put water, common salt, and tartar 
of Montpelier. When they have been well 
drained of this water in a copper sieve, they 
throw sand and fresh water over them; and 
when dry, they are well rubbed with towels. 
Blanching also denotes the operation of 
covering iron plates with a thin coat or crust i 
of tin. 
BLANKET, a coverlet for a bed: a stuff 
commonly made of white wool, and wrought 
in a loom like cloth ; with this difference, that ; 
they are crossed like sergCs. When they j 
come from the loom, they are sent to the 
fuller; and after they have- been fulled and 
well cleaned, they are napped with a fuller’s 
teazle. 
Blankets made of sheep’s wool, are divided 
into several sorts : of the head and bay wool I 
the widest are made ; and narrow oiieo of the 1 
middling and common sort. 
'i here are also blankets made with the hair 
of several animals ; as that of goats, dogs, and 
others. 
I’LANQUILLE, in commerce, a small 
silver colncurrent in the kingdom of. Morocco,, 
and all that part of the coast of Barbary : it is 
worth about three half-pence of our money. 
BLASIA, leather-cup, a gent; of the order 
of alga*, and cryptogamia class of plants ; and 
n the natural method ranking under the 5 Ah 
