.162 
BOM 
BOMBARDIER',/, in entomology. See CarabuS. 
BOMB ARD'MENT,/. An attack made upon any city, 
by throwing bombs into it.—Genoa is not yet fecure from 
a bombardment, though it is not lo expofed as formerly. 
Addifon. 
BOMBAR'DO,/ A mufical inflxument of the wind 
kind, much the fame as the buffoon, and ufed as a bafs to 
the hautboy. 
BOMB ASI'NE,/. [bombojin, Fr. from bcmbycinus, Lat. 
filken.] A (light filken (tuff, for mourning. 
BOMBA'ST,/. [a (tuff of l’oft looie texture ufed for¬ 
merly to fwell the garment, and thence ufed to lignify 
bulk or (hew without folidity.] Fuftian ; big words with- 
. out meaning: 
Not pedants motley tongue, foldiers bombcjl , 
Mountebanks drug-tongue, nor the terms of law, 
Are ftrong enough preparatives to draw 
Me to hear this. Donnt. 
BOMBA'ST, adj. High founding ; of big found with¬ 
out meaning : 
He, as loving his own pride and purpofe, 
Evades them with a bombajt circumftance, 
Horribly (luff’d with epithets of war. Shakefpeare. 
BOM'BAX, or Silk-cotton, / In botany, a genus 
af the clafs monadelphia, order polyandria, natural order 
columniferae. 1 he generic charadersare—Calyx: peri- 
. anthiii m one-leafed, tubular-campanulate, permanent; 
, mouth three or five-cleft, obtufe, ere£l. Corolla : five- 
parted, fpreading ; fegments oblong, concave. Stamina : 
filaments five or many, fubulute, the length of the corolla, 
connate at the bale; antherae oblong, bent in, incumbent. 
Pifiillum : germ rottndifli ; flyle filiform, the length of 
the (lumens ; ftigma capitate, five-toothed. Pericarpium : 
capfule large, turbinate-oblong, five-celled, five-valved ; 
valves woody. Seeds : very many, round, woolly ; re- 
Ceptaculum, columnar, five-cornered, forming the parti¬ 
tions.— EJJ'cnlial Character. Calyx, five-cleft; (lamina, 
five or more ; capfules, woody, five-celled, five-valved ; 
feeds, woolly ; receptaculum, five-cornered. 
Species, i. Bombax pentandrum: flowers five-flamen- 
, ed ; leaves in (evens. This has fmooth fiems, which in 
. the young plants are of a bright green, but after a few 
years they are covered with a grey or aftt-coloured bark, 
which turns to a brown as the trees grow older: they fel- 
dom put out any fide-branches till they arrive at a confi- 
derablC height, unlefs their leading (hoot be broken or in¬ 
jured. The branches towards their top have leaves com- 
pofed of five, feven, or nine, fmooth, lanceolate, leaflets, 
joined to one centre at their bafe, where they adhere to 
the long foot-ftalk. Thefe fall away every year, fo that 
for fome time the trees are naked ; and before the new 
leaves come out, the flower-buds appear at the ends of 
the branches, and foon after the flowers expand : they are 
compoied of five oblong purple petals, with a great num¬ 
ber of (lamens in the centre; when thefe fall off, they are 
fucceeded by oval fruit larger than a fwan’s egg, having 
a thick woody cover, which, when ripe, opens in five 
parts, and is full of a (hort dark cotton, incloling many 
roundifh feeds as large as fmall peafe. Linneus affirms, 
that the (lem when young is prickly, but not fo when it 
is grown up ; that the leaves are fometimes quite entire, 
fometimes ferrate; and that the flowers are very numerous. 
2, Bombax ceiba : flowers many-ftamened ; leaves qui- 
nate. The trunk of the fecond fort is clofely armed with 
(hort ftrong (pines. They arrive at a great fize in both 
Indies, being one of the tailed trees in thofe countries ; 
but the wood is very light, and not much valued, except 
for canoes. Their trunks are fo large, as, when hollowed, 
to make very large ones. In Columbus’s firft voyage it was 
related, that a canoe was feenat the illand of Cuba, made 
of one of thefe trees, which was ninety-rive pals long, of 
a proportional width, and capable of containing one hun¬ 
dred and fifty men; and lome modern writers have affirm- 
B O M 
ed, that there are trees of the filk-cotton now growing m 
the Wed Indies, fo large as not to be fathomed.by lixteen 
men, and fo tall that an arrow cannot be (hot to their top. 
The canoes now made in the Wed Indies from this tree 
frequently carry from fifteen to twenty hogfheadS of fugar, 
from fix to twelve hundred weight each ; the average 
about twenty-five tons burthen. When fawn into boards, 
and then well faturated witli lime-water, the wood bears 
expofure to the weather many years ; it is alfo formed into 
laths for roofs, curing-pots, and hog(head heading. When 
the tree decays, it becomes a ned for the Macaca beetle, 
the caterpillar of which, gutted and fried, is edeemed by 
many perfons one of the greated delicacies. The down 
which is i.nclofed in the feed-veflels is feidom ufed, except 
by the poorer inhabitants to duff pillows or chairs. The 
(kin of the feed is mucilaginous, the kernel is fweet like 
an almond, and of virtues fimilar to the althea. If the cot¬ 
ton is applied to wounds, it excites inflammation ; and,, 
when worn next the (kin, it checks perfpiration. 
3. Bombax heptaphyllum : flowers many-damened ; 
leaves fevenfold. This grows fifty feet high before.it 
branches, and is eighteen feet in thicknefs. The bark 
has fmooth lhining, (harp, prickles, which fall off on the 
body, but remain on the branches, fo as to prevent mon¬ 
kies from climbing the tree. It grows every where in 
Malabar, bearing fruit at lixteen years growth, in Feb¬ 
ruary and March, till it is two years of age and upwards. 
It is alfo a native of America. Linneus, in his earlier 
works, made Rheede’s plant a fynonym of his fecond fpe-_ 
cies, but afterwards referred it to this, although he af¬ 
firms the trunk to be unarmed, whereas it is faid by 
Rheede to be armed. 
4. Bombax goflypinum : leaves five-lobed, acuminate',, 
tomentofe beneath. This fpecies is a native of the Eaft 
Indies. Whether the third fpecies of Miller (bombax 
villoftim) be the fame with this is uncertain: He fays, 
that it was fent him from the Spani(h Well Indies ; and 
that the plants which have been raifed here have foft her¬ 
baceous ilalks very full of joints, and do not appear as if 
they would become woody, for the plants of feveral years 
growth have foft pithy fiems. The leaves come out on- 
long hairy foot-dalks, towards the top of the plants; they 
have the appearance of thofe of the mallow-tree, but are- 
larger, and of a thicker confidence, are covered on their 
under fide with a (hort, brown, hairy, down, and are cut 
on their edges into five angles. Thefe plants have not as 
yet flowered in England, but by the pods and feeds they 
appear evidently to be of this genus. The down inclofed 
in the pods is of a fine purple colour, and the inhabitants 
fpin it, and work it into garments, which'they wear with¬ 
out dying. Miller alfo (ays, that he received a. few pod.s 
of another fort from Panama, which were not fo iarge as 
thofe of the common fort, but were rounder. The down, 
or cotton of thefe was red, but the plants raifed from the 
feeds were fo like the foregoing as not to be difljnguifhed 
from them. Fie alfo received feeds from-Siam, which 
produced plants of the fame fort; fo that.thefe trees are 
probably common to. many of the hot countries.' A'fine 
plant of another fort was alfo raifed many years fince, in. 
the garden of the late duke of Richmond at Goodwood, 
from feeds that came from the Ea(t Indies. The flem of 
this was very flraight and fmooth ; the leaves were pro¬ 
duced round the top upon very long foot-(talks, each be¬ 
ing compofed of feven or nine long, narrow, lilky, fmall, 
leaflets, joined at their bafe to the foot-fta'lk, in the fame 
manner as the other forts ; but they were much longer,, 
and reflex. 
Propagation and Culture. Silk-cotton is propagated' by 
feeds, which mud be (own on a hot-bed in the fp ring ; if 
the feeds are good, the plants'will appear in a month, and 
will be ftrong enough to tranfplant in a month after, when 
they fliould be each planted in a fmall pot; filled witli frelli 
loamy earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of fan¬ 
ners bark, being careful to (hade them from the fun till 
(hey have, taken freib root;. after which they lbonld hav'g 
a large 
