BOR 
ficinalis, common borage, is 'rough with 
white stiff prickly hairs ; calyx divided to 
the very base, a? is also the corolla, but it 
falls off in one piece ; tube very short and 
white ; segments acute. • The common co- 
lour of the corolla is blue ; but it varies to 
flesh-coloured and white. It is a biennial 
plant, flowering from May to August. Bo- 
rage was formerly in great request, being 
reckoned one of the four cordial flowers. 
The whole herb is succulent and mucilage- 
nous, having a faint smell when bruised. 
The juice affords a true nitre. This plant 
came originally from Aleppo. 
BOOT topping' , in naval affairs, signifies 
the operation of scraping off the grass, 
slime, shells, &c. which adhere to the bot- 
tom of the ship, near the surface of the wa- 
ter, and daubing it over with a mixture of 
tallow, sulphur, and resin ; it is chiefly per- 
formed where there is no dock or other 
commodious situation for careening, or 
when the hurry of a voyage renders it in- 
convenient to have the whole bottom 
cleansed. 
Boot tree, or Boot last, an instrument 
used by shoemakers to widen the leg of a 
boot. It is a wooden cylinder slit into two 
parts, between which, when it is put into 
the boot, they drive by main force a wedge 
or quoin. 
BOOTES, a constellation of the northern 
hemisphere, consisting of 23 stars, accord- 
ing to Ptolemy’s catalogue ; and of 45, in 
Mr. Flamstead’s catalogue. 
BORACIC acid. See Borax. 
BORASSUS, in botany, a genus of 
plants the characters of which are not well 
ascertained. Class Appendix Palmse, Lin- 
naaus. Essential character; corolla tliree- 
parted ; male stamina six ; female, styles 
three ; drupe three-seeded. There is but 
one species, with its varieties ; viz. B. fla- 
belliformis, has a dark-coloured bark ; the 
wood is a dark-brownish red, and has a soft 
pith in the middle ; fronds decussate on the 
top of the trunk; stipe near six feet in 
length, flat, and a little hollow, with rough 
spines along the edges ; below, near a span 
in breadth ; above, not more than a palm; 
the leaf part is large, and folded like a fan 
or umbrella, for which purpose it is used. 
The male and female flowers are on dif- 
ferent trees, whieh have been considered as 
distinct species. This tree is from twenty- 
five to thirty feet in height, two feet thick 
at bottom and one at top. The fruit is as 
large as a child’s head. Wine and sugar 
BOR 
are made from the sap of this palm. It is a 
native of Ceylon, the coast of Coromandel, 
Java, &c. 
BORATES, salts formed with thebora- 
cic acid. See the next article. 
BORAX, in chemistry, is a name given 
to a species of white salt much used by va- 
rious artists. Its use in soldering metals 
appears to have been known to Agricola. 
Borax is found mixed with other substances 
in Thibet. It seems to exist in some lands 
adjacent to lakes, from which it is extract- 
ed by water, and deposited in those lakes ; 
whence in summer, when the water is shal- 
low, it is extracted and carried off in large 
lumps. Sometimes the water in these lakes 
is admitted into reservoirs, at the bottom 
of which, when the water is exhaled by the 
summer’s heat, this salt is found. Hence it 
is carried to the East Indies, where it is in 
some measure purified and crystallized ; in 
this state it comes to Europe, and is called 
lineal. In other parts of Thibet, it seems, 
by accounts received from China, they dig 
it out of the ground at the depth of about 
two yards, where they find it in smaller cry- 
stalline masses. 
Borax, or sub-borate of soda. This salt, 
the only one of the borates which has been 
accurately examined, is supposed to have 
been known to the ancients, and to be the 
substance denominated chrysocolia by Pli- 
ny. At any rate, it is mentioned by Geber 
as early as the ninth century, under the 
name of borax. Its composition was first 
pointed out by Geoffrey, in 1732, and Ba- 
ron, in 1748. Bergman demonstrated that 
it has an excess of base, and is therefore in 
the state of a sub-borate. 
Borax purified, may be obtained crystal- 
lized in liexangular prisms, of which two 
sides are much broader than the remainder, 
and terminated by triangular pyramids ; it 
is of a white colour : its specific gravity is 
1.740 : it converts vegetable blues to green : 
its taste is styptic and alkaline ; it is soluble 
in twenty times its weight of water, of the 
temperature of 60°, and six times its weight 
of boiling water : when exposed to the air, 
it effloresces slowly and slightly : when 
heated, it swells, loses about four-tenths of 
its weight, becomes ropy, and then assumes 
the form of a light, porous, and very friable 
mass, known by the name of calcined bo- 
rax ; in a strong heat it melts into a trans- 
parent glass still soluble in wafer. When 
two pieces of borax are struck together in 
the dark, a flash of light is emitted. This 
