75 
B L A 
foils and (hady fituations, (hooting luxuriantly near rivu¬ 
lets. Here alfo it is propagated by feeds, which are an¬ 
nually brought from the Weft Indies in plenty. Thefe 
fliould be fown in a fmall pot, filled with light rich earth, 
and plunged into a hot-bed of tanners-bark ; where, if the 
bed is of a proper temperature of heat, the plants will ap¬ 
pear in about a month after: when thefe are about an 
inch high, they fliould be fhaken out of the pot and care¬ 
fully feparated, fo as not to tear off their tender roots, and 
each planted in a fmall pot filled with fome rich light 
earth, and plunged into a frefti hot-bed of tanners-bark, 
obferving to (hade them every day until they have taken 
new root; after which they mull be treated as other ten¬ 
der plants from the fame country, by admitting frefh air 
to them in proportion to the warmth of the fealon ; and, 
when the heat of the tan declines, it fhould be turned up 
to the bottom, and, if neceflary, (ome frefh tan added to 
renew the heat. The plants muft be refrelhed three times 
a-week with water in fummer, but they muft not have it 
in great quantities, for their roots often rot with much 
wet. If the plants are raifed early in the fpring, and pro¬ 
perly managed, they will be a foot and a half high by the 
autumn, when they fliould be removed into the bark-ftove, 
and plunged into the tan-bed. During the winter, they 
muft have but little water, and while the plants are young, 
they muft have a good fhare of warmth, othcrwife they are 
very fubject to calf their leaves, and frequently lofe their 
tops, which renders them unfightly. They muft be con- 
ftantly kept in the bark-ftove, for thofe plants which have 
been placed in a dry ftove have never made much progrels. 
BIZAN'Tl A, a town of European Turkey, in the pro¬ 
vince of Moldavia : forty miles louth-weft of Birlah. 
BIZ AN'TINE, f. [more properly fpelt byzantine ; from 
Byzantium.'] A great piece of gold, valued at fifteen 
pounds, which the king offereth upon high feftival days ; 
it is yet called a bizantine, which anciently was a piece of 
gold coined by the emperors of Conftantinople. 
BIZAR'RE, y. denoting capricious , See. a term ufed 
among florifts fora particular kind of carnation, which has 
its flowers ftriped or variegated with three or four colours. 
BIZAR'RO, f. in the Italian mufic, denotes a mixed 
compofition, faft, flow, foft, ftrong, Sc c. according to the 
fancy of the compofer. 
BIZE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Aude, and diftrid of Narbonne: ten miles north-weft of 
Narbonne. 
BIZO'CHl, or BisoCHi,y. in church-hiftory, heretical 
monks, whoalTumed the religious habit contrary to the ca¬ 
nons, rejeCled the facraments, and maintained other errors. 
BIZON'NES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Here, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridl of la 
Tour du Pin : twelve miles north-weft of Moirans. 
BI'ZU, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Morocco, 
fituated on a mountain, in a fertile country : twenty-five 
leagues north of Morocco. 
BIZ'YA, a town of European Turkey, in Romania: 
fifty miles eaft of Adrianople. 
To BLAB, v. a. \_blabberen, Dut.] To tell what ought 
to be kept fecret : it ufually implies rather thoughtlelF- 
nefs than treachery ; but may be ufed in either fenfe : 
Sorrow nor joy can bedifguis’d by art. 
Our foreheads blab the fecrets of our heart. Drydcn. 
To tell; in a good fenfe : not ufed : 
That delightful engine of her thoughts, 
That blabb'd them with fitch plealing eloquence, 
Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage. Shakefpeare. 
To BLAB, v. n. To tattle ; to tell tales. 
Your mute I’ll be ; 
When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not fee. Shakefp. 
BLAB, y A telltale; a thoughtlefs blabber ; a treach¬ 
erous betrayer of fecrets: 
B L A 
To have reveal’d 
Secrets of man, the fecrets of a friend, 
Contempt and Icorn of all, to be excluded 
All friendlhip, and avoided as a blab. Milton. 
BLAB'BF.R, f. A tattler; a telltale. 
7 o BLAB'BER, v. n. To whittle to a horfe. 
BLACK, adj. [< blac, Sax.] Of the colour of night.-— 
In the twilight in the evening, in the black and dark night. 
Proverbs.- —Ariftotle has problems which enquire why the 
fun makes man black, and not the fire ; why it whitens 
wax, yet blacks the tkin. Brown. —Dark.—The heaven 
was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great 
rain, i Kings.— Cloudy of countenance ; fullen : 
She hath abated me of half my train ; 
Look’d black upon me. Shakefpeare, 
Horrible ; wicked ; atrocious : 
Either my country never muft be freed, 
Or I contenting to fo black a deed. Dryden. 
Black and Blue. The colour of a bruife ; a ftripe._ 
Miftrefs Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that 
you cannot fee a white fpot about her. Shakefpeare. 
BLACK,y A black colour : 
Black is the badge of hell, 
The hue of dungeons, and the fcowl of night. Shakefp. 
Mourning : 
Rife, wretched widow', rife; nor, undeplor’d, 
Permit my ghoft to pafs the Stygian ford: 
But rife, prepar’d in black to mourn thy perifh’d lord. 
Dryden. 
A blackamoor, or negro. That part of the eye which is 
black.—It fuflices that it be in every part of the air, which 
is as big as the black or fight of the eye. Digby. —Since 
blacknejs, in general, is the confequence of a defect of 
light, any circumftance which prevents the reflection of 
mod of the luminous rays which fall upon bodies, will 
caufe fuch bodies to exhibit what is commonly called a 
black colour. Opticians have fliewn that this effect may 
arife either from the exquifite polifli of bodies, which 
caufes all the light to be reflected in one direction; or 
from the fmallnefs of the primary particles, which tranf- 
mit the light to the internal part of the body, inftead of 
reflecting it. In this way, we find that all metallic fub- 
ftances, and likewife feveral other bodies, may be ren¬ 
dered black by mere mechanical trituration ; and it is oh 
account of the fmallnefs ot the particles that black pig¬ 
ments are capable of completely covering and deftroyiim 
the effeCt of other colours- Dr. Lewis has made the fol¬ 
lowing ingenious remarks concerning black colours : “ Of 
black, as of other colours, there are many fhades or vari¬ 
eties ; different bodies, truly and limply black, or which 
have no fenfible admixture of any of the reft of the co. 
lours, as black velvet, fine black cloth, the feathers of the 
raven, &c. appearing, when placed together, of tints 
very fenfibly different. One and the fame body alfo af- 
fumes different degrees of blackncfs, according to the dif- 
pofition ot the fenfible part of its furface ; and in this re- 
fpeCt, there is not, perhaps, any other colour which is fo 
much affeCted by an apparent mechanifm. Thus black 
velvet, when the pile is raifed, appears intenfely black, 
much more fo than the (Ilk it was made from; but on 
prefling the pile fmooth, it looks pale, and in certain po- 
fitions ftiews fomewhat even of a whitifti caft. This ob- 
fervation is agreeable to the phyfical theory, which af- 
cribes the blacknefs of bodies to the luminous rays, that 
fall upon them, being in great part abforbed or ftifled in 
their pores. When the furface is compofed of a multi¬ 
tude of loofe filaments, or fmall points, with the extre¬ 
mities turned towards the eye, much of the light is fti¬ 
fled in the interftices Between them, and-the bod'y appears 
dark: when the filaments are preifed clofe, or the furface 
fmoothett 
