BAS 
BAS 
strong, succulent stalks, and leaves of a 
deep purple colour. This plant requires to 
be supported, for it will climb to the height 
of eight or ten feet. The flowers have no 
great beauty ; but tiie plant is preserved for 
the odd appearance of the stalks and leaves. 
It is a native ot the East Indies, Amboyna, 
and Japan. From the berries a beautiful 
colour is drawn: when used for painting 
does not continue very long, but changes to 
a pale colour; and has also been used for 
staining calicoes in India. 
BASEMENT, in architecture, a base 
continued a considerable length, as round a 
house, room, &c. 
BASILIC, in ancient architecture, a 
term used for a large hall, or public place, 
with isles, porticoes, galleries, tribunals, &c. 
where princes sat and administred justice 
in person. But the name has since been 
tranferred, and is now applied to such 
churches, temples, &c. which by their gran- 
deur as far surpass other churches as princes’ 
palaces do private houses ; as also to cer- 
tain spacious halls in princes’ courts, where 
the people hold their assemblies : and to 
such stately buildings as the Palais at Pa- 
ris, and the Royal Exchange at London, 
where merchants meet and converse. 
BASILICON. See Pharmacy. 
BASILICUS, in astronomy, Cov Leonis, a 
fixed star of the first magnitude in the con- 
stellation Leo. See Leo. 
BASKET, a kind of vessel made of 
twigs interwoven together, in order to hold 
fruit, earth, &c. 
The best baskets are made of osiers, which 
thrive in moist places. To form an osier 
bed, the land should be divided into plots 
' eight or ten feet broad, by narrow ditches’ 
and if there is a power of keeping water in 
these places, by means of a sluice, it is of 
the greatest importance in dry seasons. 
The common osier is cut at three years, but 
that with yellow bark not till the fourth. 
When the osiers are cut down, those that 
are intended for white work, such as baskets 
used in washing, are to be stripped of their 
bark while green. This is done by means 
of a sharp instrument, fixed into a firm 
block, over which the osiers are passed, 
and stripped of their covering with great 
velocity. They are then dried, and put in 
bundles for sale. Before they are worked, 
they must be soaked in water, which ren- 
ders them flexible. The basket-maker 
usually sits on the ground to his business. 
Hampers and other coarse work ary made 
ot osiers without any previous preparation. 
The ancient Britons were celebrated for 
their ingenuity in making baskets, which 
they exported in great numbers. They 
were often of very elegant workmanship, 
and bore a high price. 
Baskets of earth, in the military art, 
are small baskets used in sieges, on the pa- 
rapet of a trench, being filled with earth. 
They are a foot and a half high, about 
a foot arid a half diameter at the top, 
and eight or ten inches at bottom ; so that 
being set together, there is a sort of em- 
brassures left at their bottoms, through 
which the. soldiers fire, without exposing 
themselves. 
Basket fish, a kind of star-fish caught 
in the seas of North America. 
Basket salt, that made from salt springs, 
being purer, whiter, and composed of finer 
grains than the common brine salt. 
BASS, in music, that part of a concert 
which is most heard, which consists of the 
gravest and deepest sounds, and which is 
played on the largest pipes or strings of a 
common instrument, as of an organ, lute, 
&c. or on instruments larger than ordinary, 
for that purpose, as bass-viols, bassoons, 
bass-hautboys, &c. The bass is the princi- 
pal part of a musical composition, and the 
foundation of harmony ; for which reason 
it is a maxim among musicians, that when 
the bass is good, the harmony is seldom 
bad. 
Bass, counter, is a second or double 
bass, where there are several in the same 
concert. 
Bass, figured, is that which, while a cer- 
tain chord or harmony is continued by the 
parts above, moves in notes of the same 
harmony. Thus, if the upper parts con- 
sist of C, E, G, (the harmony of C,) and 
while they are continued, the bass moves 
from C, the fundamental note of that har- 
mony, to E, another note of the same har- 
mony ; that bass is called a figured bass. 
Bass, fundamental, is that which forms 
the tone or natural foundation of the incum- 
bent harmony ; and from which, as a law- 
ful source, that harmony is derived : that is, 
if the harmony consist of the common chord 
of C, C will be its fundamental bass, be- 
cause from that note the harmony is de- 
duced ; and if, while that harmony is con- 
tinued, the bass be changed to any other 
note, it ceases to be fundamental, because 
it is no longer the note from which that har- 
mony results and is calculated. 
Bass ground, is that which starts with 
some subject of its own, and continues to 
NHeH 
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