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Some would have the fize of a bafon to be proper- 
tioned to the jet d 5 Eau, that the water thrown up in 
the air, may not, by being blown by the air, be car- 
ried beyond the edge of the bafon, but all fall down 
without wetting the walk. 
As to the depth of bafons it is ufually from two to 
three feet, this depth being Efficient to fecure the 
bottom of the bafons from froft, and to dip watering 
pots. 
But if they are to ferve for refervoirs, or to keep Mi 
in, then they may be made four or live feet deep, 
which will both hold water enough, and be deep 
.enough for the hill to breed in, and alfo to bear a 
boat. 
Deeper than this they need not be, and if they were 
deeper, they would be dangerous as to the drowning 
of perfons who might chance to fall in. 
In making bafons, great care ought to be taken in 
making them at firft ; for the water always naturally 
endeavouring to run away, and by its weight and 
p re Eure in a bafon, making its way out at the leaft 
cranny, it will grow conftantly bigger and bigger ^ fo 
that if it be not well made at firft, it will be very dif- 
ficult to repair it. 
Bafons are made either with clay, cement, or lead ; 
they are moft ufually made of clay •, in making fuch, 
at the marking out the dimenfions, the diameter 
ought to be four feet bigger on each fide, yet the 
bafon will not be the wider, for it will be taken up 
with the walls on each fide ; and the clay- work, which 
is to fill the fpace between •, the bafon mu ft alfo be 
dug two feet deeper than the depth of the water is 
defigned to be, becaufe it is to be laid pver eighteen 
inches thick with clay, and fix inches with gravel and 
paving. 
The clay ought to be well wrought with the hands 
and water, and when it is fpread, fhould be trodden 
in with the naked feet, that the water of the bafon 
may not dilute through it, and the roots of any trees 
that may grow near, may not penetrate into the out- 
ward wall, which may be made of fhards, rubble, or 
flints, with mortar made of the natural earth, and is 
called the ground wall, becaufe it is only made to re- 
fill the prefifure of the ground about it. The inward 
wall ought to be made with good rubble ftones that 
will not fcale and come off in flafhes in the water, or 
elfe of flints and ftones from the hills, which will 
make durable work, but will not look fo neat as the 
pointed rubble •, and there ought to be laid here and 
there ftones, the thicknefs of the wall, to render it 
the more fubftantial. 
The method of making bafons of cement is as fol- 
lows : after you have marked out the dimenfions of 
the bafon, as before, if you enlarge it one foot nine 
inches, it will be fufficient, and the fame depth deeper 
at the bottom will be enough. 
This being done, you muft begin to back up and 
raife againft the ground ; cut perpendicularly a wall 
of mafonry a foot thick, which muft go to the bot- 
tom, and fhould be built with fhards and rubble ftones 
laid in mortar of lime and fand. 
When the wall is finifhed round the circumference, 
then the bottom is to be wrought a foot thick with 
the fame materials j and the folid work or lining of 
cement is to be backed up againft the walls nine 
inches thick, including the plaftering and inward fur- 
lace. This folid ought to be made of fmall flints, 
laid in beds of mortar made of lime and cement. 
When this folid is eight inches thick, it ought to be 
plaftered over the whole furface of the bottom 'with 
cement well fifted before it be tempered with lime •, 
and with this it fhould be wrought over fmooth with 
the trowel. 
The proportion of this cement fhould be two thirds 
-of cement or powdered tile to one third of lime. 
This cement has the property to harden fo under wa- 
ter, that it will be as hard as (tone or marble, and 
the body will be fo folid as never to decay. 
After the finiffiing of the bafon, the plaftering fhould 
be for four or five days fucceffively anointed over with 
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oil, or bullock’s blood, to prevent it from cracking 
or flawing this being done, the water fhould be let 
into the bafon as foon as may be. 
Thofe bafons which are made of lead, are to be thus 
wrought ^ the outlines ought to be enlarged one foot 
of a fide, and digged half a foot deeper than the ba- 
fon is to be. 
The wall muft be made a foot thick, that it may be 
able to bear up againft the earth lying againft it j but 
the bottom wilf not require to be more than half a 
foot thick. 
Thefe walls muft be built in rubble laid in mortar all 
of plafter, becaufe the lime v/ill eat the lead, and then 
the lead muft be laid on the walls and bottom, and 
be beamed with folder. 
But bafons of lead are not much in ufe, becaufe of 
their great charge in making, and the danger of the 
lead being fcolen. 
Great care ought to be taken to keep the upper edge 
and fuperficies of a bafon upon a level, that the wa- 
ter may cover all the walls equally. 
As to the waile pipes of bafons, whether at the bot- 
tom or fuperficies, they ought not to be made too 
fmall, left they fhould be choked, notwithftanding the 
cawls that are drawn before them. 
When this wafte water is only to be loft in finks and 
common fewers, it is carried away in drains or earthen 
pipes •, but when it ferves to pi y the bafons that lie 
below it, it muft pafs through leaden pipes. 
Thefe bafons are now pretty generally rejected by per- 
fons of good tafte, as being no ways ornamental ; 
therefore where there is a neceffity to make refervoirs 
for water for the ufe of gardens, they are commonly- 
dug in the loweft part of gardens, or where the fpot 
is moft convenient for receiving the water, which may 
run from the adjacent grounds in hard rains thefe 
ponds fhould have their fides made very eafy, for, if 
they are too upright, the earth frequently breaks down 
by the water waffling, and making it hollow below ; 
the Aides and bottoms of thefe ponds fhould be laid 
nine or ten inches thick with well wrought clay ; and, 
as the clay is finifhed, it fhould be well covered to 
prevent the fun and wind from cracking it before the 
water is let in. The figures of thefe ponds fhould 
not be regular, for the fhape of the hollow, where 
they are made, fhould be followed, which will fave 
expence, and have a better appearance. 
BASTERIA. Nov. Gen. All-fpice. 
As this plant had no proper title given to it, I have 
given it this in honour of my worthy friend Dr. Job 
Bafter, F. R. S. of Zurich Zee, in Elolland, who is 
a gentleman well fkilled in botany, and has a fine 
garden ftored with rare plants, of which he is very- 
communicative to his friends, as I have many years 
experienced. 
The Characters are. 
The emp dement cf the flower is Jhort , of me leaf, and 
cut into five narrow fiegments at the top. It hath a dou- 
ble feries of narrow petals , which fpread open , and turn 
inward at their extremity. Under the receptacle is Jiiu- 
ated an oval germen, having no ftyle , but five fiigma refil- 
ing upon it, and is furreunded by many jh<rrt ftamina y 
crowned by obtufie fiummits. The germen afterward be- 
comes a rGundifh fruit , ccmprejfed at both ends , having 
cells , containing oblong feeds. 
We have but one Species of this genus at prefent 
in England, which is, 
Basteria folds ovatis oppofifis, floribus lateralibus 
caule fruticofo ramofo. Bafteria with oval leaves placed 
oppofite, flowers coming from the fides of the ftalks, and a 
branching fhrubby ftalk. Frutex Corni foliis conjugatis 
floribus Anemones ftellatas, petalis craffis rigidis ^co- 
lore fordide rubente, cortice Aromatico. Catefb. Hift. 
Carol. Yol. I. p. 46. commonly called in Carolina All- 
fpice. 
This ffirub grows naturally in America. Mr. Catefby, 
who firft introduced it into the Engliffi gardens, pro- 
cured it from the continent, fome hundred miles on 
the back of Charles Town, in Carolina. 
It 
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