BIG 
pinnate. Flowers axillary or terminating. 
B. tripartita is obviously distinguished 
from B. cernua, drooping water hemp 
agrimony, by its trifid leaves, a character 
more to be depended on than the upright- 
ness of its flowers. It is also much more 
common with us at least. That is generally 
found in water ; this more frequently oc- 
curs on the borders of ponds, rivulets, &c. 
where it flowers in August and September. 
This plant dyes a deep yellow. The yarn 
or thread must be first steeped in alum wa- 
ter, then dried and steeped in a decoction 
of the plant, and afterwards boiled in the 
decoction. The seeds have been some- 
times known to destroy gold-fish, by ad- 
herring to their gills and jaws. 
BIENNIAL plants, in botany, such as 
are of two years duration. Of this kind 
there are numerous plants, which being 
raised one year from seed, generally attain 
perfection in the same year, shooting up 
stalks, producing flowers, and perfecting 
seeds in the following spring or summer, 
and soon after perish. 
BIGAMY, in law, is where a person 
marries a second w ife, or husband, the fiist 
being alive, for which the punishment was 
formerly death, as in cases of felony ; but 
it is now usually punished with a long im- 
prisonment or even transportation ; and in 
the case of a spy, employed by government 
in the year 1794, who was convicted ot bi- 
gamy, the punishment was the mere resi- 
dence in the house of the jailor for a very 
few days. . 
BIGNONIA, the trumpet-flower, in bo- 
tany, a genus of the Di lynamia Angiosper- 
mia class. The flower is monopetalous, 
with a mouth campariulated, and divided 
into five segments : the fruit is a pod with 
two cells and two valves, containing several 
imbricated, compressed, and winged seeds. 
There are 27 species, mostly trees and 
shrubs, inhabitants of the hot climates of the 
East and West Indies, and eminently beau- 
tiful. Flowers in panicles, large and hand- 
some of various colours, red, blue, yellow, 
or white. The calyx should be observed, 
whether it be simple or double ; the co- 
rolla, whether it be regular or irregular ; 
the stamens, whether they be fertile or 
barren; the fruit, whether it be bony or 
capsular, inform of a silique or ovate. B. 
catalpa is a deciduous tree, rising with an 
upright stem, covered with a smooth brown 
bark, to the height of thirty or forty feet : 
it sends out many strong lateral branches, 
having very arge heart-shaped leaves on 
BIL 
them, placed opposite at eve 17 point. The 
flowers are succeeded by long taper pods ; 
but these have not yet been produced in 
England ; it is found growing naturally on 
the back of South Carolina, at a great dis- 
tance from the English settlements. It is 
now not uncommon in our nurseries and 
plantations This tree has a good effect 
when it stands in the middle of large open- 
ings, where it can treely send forth its side 
branches and shew itself to advantage. It 
flowers in August, and is known in the nur- 
series by its Indian name Catalpa. 
BILBOES, a punishment at sea, answer- 
ing to the stocks at land. The offender 
is laid in irons, or stocks, which are more or 
less ponderous, according to the quality of 
the offence of which he is guilty. 
BILDGE of a ship, the bottom of her 
floor, or the breadth ot the place the ship 
rests on when she is aground. Therefore, 
bildge-water m that which lies on her floor, 
and cannot go to the well of the pump : and 
bildge-pumps, or burr-pumps, are those that 
earry off the bildge-water. They likewise 
say the ship is bildged, when she has some 
of her timber struck off on a rock or anchor, 
and springs a leak. 
BILDSTEIR, a mineral called by 
Klaproth Agalmatolite, of which there are 
two varieties. The first is semitranspaient, 
its colour is olive and asparagus green, 
passing into greenish grey, internally it is 
shining, and has a greasy lustre : its parallel 
fracture is obscurely slaty, its cross fracture 
is small splintery passing to compact uneven : 
it is translucid, soft, and has a greasy feel. 
Specific gravity 2.81 : according to Kla- 
proth it contains, 
Silex M 
Alumina 36 
Oxide of iron.... 0.75 
Water 5.50 
Loss 3.75 
100.00 
The second variety is opaque, and is of a 
reddish white passing into flesh-red, and va- 
riegated with different coloured veins: it 
possesses little or no lustre, and has a com- 
pact fracture ; it consists of 
Silex 62 
Alumina 24 
Lime 1 
Oxide of iron.... 0.5 
Water 10.0 
Loss 2.5 
100.0 
