B O C 
BOCCAMAZ'ZA (Angelus), was bifltop of Catania 
in Sicily, and author of a Chronicle which comprifes the 
mod remarkable things trail failed in Sicily, from 1027 to 
1283 ; including the conquefl of the Normans in that 
ifiand, and the victories they obtained over the Saracens, 
whom they drove quite out of that ifiand. He was made 
bifhop in 1279, and held his dignity to the time of his 
death, which happened after 1296. His Brevis Chronica 
is inferted in the Reruni Ital. Script, of Muratori. 
BOCCHIANl'CO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
Naples, and province of Abruzzo" Citra : three miles 
fbuth-eaft of Civita di Chieta. 
BOCCIAR'DI (Clemente), called Clementone , hiflory 
.and portrait painter, was born at Genoa in 1620, and was 
the difciple of Bernardo Strozzi. He went to Rome to 
explore that true fublimity of flyle, which can only be ob¬ 
tained by a judicious obfervation of the ancient fculp- 
tures, and the works of the celebrated modern artifls. 
Mod of the works of this mailer (except his portraits, 
which were lively, natural, and graceful) are in the cha¬ 
pels of Genoa, Pifa, and other cities of Italy ; of which 
places they are accounted the greatefl ornaments, and are 
exceedingly edeemed. 
BOCCO'NI (Sylvio), a celebrated natural hiflorian, 
born at Palermo, in Sicily, the 24th of April, 1633. After 
he had gone through the ufual courfe of fludies, he ap¬ 
plied himfelf chiefly to natural hiflory, in which he made 
a moft furprifing progrefs. He was afterwards ordained 
pried, and entered into the Cidercian order : but this new 
way of life did not in the lead divert him from his fa¬ 
vourite dudy ; for he purfued it with greater vigour than 
ever, and travelled over Sicily, and vilited the ifle of 
Malta, Italy, the Low Countries, England, Fiance, Ger¬ 
many, Poland, and feveral other nations. In 1696, he 
was admitted a member of the academy of the virtuofi in 
Germany. He was at Padua fome time, where he dudied 
under James Pighi, firfl profelfor of anatomy there : upon 
his return to Sicily, he retired to a convent of his own 
order, near Palermo, where he died Dec. 22, 1704. He 
left many curious works. 
BOCCO'NI A, f. [from Paolo Boccone , M. D. a Sicilian, 
and mentioned above under the name of Sylvio ; author 
of leones & Defcript-iones rariorum Plantarum Siciliae, 
Melitae, Galline, & Italian; and Mufeo di Piante rare.] 
In botany, a genus, of the clafs dodecandria, order mo- 
nogynia, natural order rhoeadeae. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx : perianthium two leaved, ovate, obtufe, 
conCave, caducous. Corolla : none. Stamina : filaments 
twelve, (lix Willuh.) very fliort ; anthers linear, very 
large, the length o-f the calyx. Pidillum : germ roundifli, 
contracted both ways, large, pedicelled ; flyle one, bifid ; 
digmassimple, reflex. Periearpium : fubovate, attenu¬ 
ated to each end, comprefled, one-celled, two-valved ; 
valves coriaceous, gaping from the bafe, the annular fu¬ 
ture continuing ; crowned with the flyle. Seed : one, glo¬ 
bular, the bafe involved in pulp, fixed to the bottom of 
the capfule— EJp-mtial Charatler. Calyx, two-leaved ; co¬ 
rolla, none ; flyle, bifid ; berry, dry, one-feeded. 
There is only one fpecies, called bocconia frutefeens, 
or (hrubby bocconia, tree celandine, or parrot-weed. It 
is a dumb rifing to the height of ten or twelve feet, with 
a flraight trunk, as large as a man’s arm, coveretj with a 
white fmooth bark, and branched towards the top. The 
trunk is hollow, filled with a pith like the elder, abound¬ 
ing in a thick yellow juice, like argemone and celandine. 
Branches brittle, unequal, marked with fears from the 
fallen leaves. Leaves from lix dr feven inches to a foot 
in length, oblong, (inuate-laciniate, fubferrate, fmooth, 
afli-coloured-tomentofe beneath : petioles roundifl), pu- 
befeent. Racemes terminating, panicled, a foot long, dif- 
fwfed, nodding. Peduncles one-flowered. Bradles under 
the flowers, fmall, lanceolate. Filaments ten, feldom 
more, longer than the leaflets of the calyx, hanging down, 
loofe : anthers longer than the filaments. Germ ovate, 
compelled, glaucous. Jacquinfays, that he has always 
B O C 139 
reckoned from twelve to fixteen Aamens in the flower 
when clofed. Native of Mexico and the Wefl-India 
illands. The juice is acrid, and is ufed in the Wed-Indies 
to take ofl’ tetters and warts. 
It is propagated by feeds, which fhould be fown in a 
pot filled with light frefh earth, early in the fpring, and 
plunged into a hot-bed of tanners-bark, obferving to water 
it now and then gently, otherwife the feeds will not grow. 
When the plants are come up, they fhould be each tranf- 
planted into leparate fmall pots, filled with light Tandy 
earth, and plunged into the hot-bed again, obferving to 
fhade the glades in the heat of the day, until the plants 
have taken root. They mud alfo be gently watered, but, 
it fhould be done fparingly while they are young ; for 
their flems being very tender, and full of juice, will rot, 
if they receive too much moillure ; but, after their flems 
are become woody, they will require it often, efpecially in 
hot weather ; when alio they fhould have a large (hare of 
air, by railing the glades of the hot-bed. The plants,, 
in two months after tranfplanting, will have filled thefe 
fmall pots with their roots ; therefore they fhould be fhaken 
out of them, and planted into pots one lize larger, filled 
with light frefh; earth,, and plunged into the bark-dove, 
where they fhould have a good (bare of frefh air in warm 
weather. With this management, thefe plants have been 
raifed upwards of two feet high in. one feafon, which were 
alfo very flrong in-- their flems: they mud be conflantly 
kept,in the dove, being too tender to thrive in this coun¬ 
try in any other dtuation. This plant has flowered in the 
phyfic garden at Chelfea, and perfected feeds ; but, if it- 
were not to flower, the Angular beauty of the plant ren¬ 
ders it worthy of a place in every curious collection of 
plants ; and it feems the Indians were very fond of it, 
for Hernandez tells us, the Indian kings planted it irv 
their gardens. Cutivated, 1739, by Mr. Miller. 
BOCH', a river of the Netherlands, which runs into the 
Meule, five miles below Dinant. 
BOCHA'RA. See Bukhaxia. 
BO'CHART (Samuel), a learned French proteflant, 
born at Roan, in Normandy, in 1599. He made a very 
early progrefs in learning, particularly in the Greek lan¬ 
guage, of which we have a proof in the verfes he com— 
poled in praife of Thomas Dempfler, under whom he 
dudied at Paris. Fie went through a courfe of philofbphy 
at Sedan, and dudied divinity at Saumur, under Carnero, 
whom lie followed to London ; the academy at Saumur 
being difperfed during the civil war. He made but a (hort 
day in England, for about the end of 1621 he was a: 
Leyden, where he applied himfelf to the dudy of the Ara¬ 
bic, under Erpenius. When Bochart returned to France,, 
he was chofen minider of Caen, where he didinguilhed 
himfelf by public deputations with father Veron, a very 
famous controverlid. The difptite was held in the caflle, 
of Caen, in prefence of a great number of catholics and 
protedants. Bochart came off with honour and reputa¬ 
tion, which was not a little increafed upon the publication 
of his Phaleg and Canaan, which are the titles of the two 
parts of his Geographica Sacra, 1646. He acquired alfo 
great fame by his Hierozoicon, printed at London, 1675. 
This treats de animalibus facrx feriptune. 'File great 
learning difplayed in thefe works rendered him efteemed 
not only amongfl thofe of his own perfnalion, but amongfl 
all lovers of knowledge, of whatever denomination. In 
1652, the queen of Sweden invited him to Stockholm, 
where fhe gave him many proofs of her regard andefteem. 
On his return into France, in 1633, he continued his ordi¬ 
nary exercifes, and was one of the members of t he academy 
of Caen, which confided of all the learned men of that 
place. He died fuddenly, when he was fpeaking in this 
academy, May 6, 1667, >vhich gave M. Brieux occ&fion 
to make the following epitaph on him : 
Scilicet haec cuique ed data fors aequiflima, tabs 
Ut fit mors, qualis vita perafla Fuit. 
Mufarum in gremio teneris qui vixit ab armis, 
Mu fa rum in gremio debuit ifle niori, 
Befides 
1 
