o C 1 
BOS BOS 
the lad forty years, been drained and enclofed, and now BOS'TRYCIIUS, f. in entomology, a genus of the co¬ 
produce capital crops of corn. The town is built on each leoptera order of infefts. Generic characters, antennae 
tide of the river .Witharn, which empties itfelf into the clavate, foiid at the tip; thorax convex, flight!/ margined j 
fea about five miles below. Its diftance is 116 miles north head inflefted, and hid under the thorax. A fertile and 
from London. It has a good market on Wednefdays, and 
a finaller. one on Saturdays; with four fairs annually, viz. 
on May 4, Auguft n, November 22, and December n. 
The latter holds nine days, for cattle and merchandile. 
The river is navigable, at the fpring tides, for veftels of 
ten to eleven feet water; and a confiderable number of 
final 1 craft are conitantly employed in the corn-trade to 
London. A good inland trade is carried on by canals 
with different parts of the country, and particularly with 
Lincoln and Yorklhire, by a navigation called the New 
liiver, which, for near twenty miles, is fiibftituted for 
the ancient Witham. All the neighbouring country con- 
fifts of marfn-lands, which are very rich, and feed vaft 
numbers of large fheep and oxen. The fens reach in 
length, in fome places, near fifty miles, and in breadth 
•above thirty; and, as they are fo level that there is no in¬ 
terruption to the fight, the profpefts every way are de- 
liohtful. The church is a handfome ftrufture of Gothic 
architeffure, and is reckoned the largeft parochial church, 
without . crofs-ajfles, in the univerfe, being.300 feet long 
within the walls, and 100 feet wide. It is ceiled with 
Englifh oak, fupported by tall flender pillars. It has 365 
(teps, fifty-two windows, and twelve pillars, anfwerable 
to the days, weeks, and months, of the year. Its tower, 
the higheft in Britain, which was begun to be built in 
1309, is 282 feet high. It has a beautiful ofitagon lantern 
on the top, which is a guide to mariners, as they enter 
the dangerous channels of Lynn-deeps and Bofton-deeps, 
as well as the wonder of travellers, who fee it forty miles 
round. About the end of the reign of Henry I. this town 
was fet on fire by a gang of defperadoes, who came to its 
fair in the difguife of monks and priefts ; but it foon re¬ 
covered, and became a-ttaple for wool, by which it was 
much enriched. It was incorporated by Henry VIII. and 
a free gramtnar-fehool was founded by queen Elizabeth. 
There are three other fchools in the town ; a charity- 
fchool for thirty boys and twenty girls ; a fchool for poor 
freemens’ children ; and a Sunday-fchool for poor boys 
and girls. The corporation confilts of a mayor, recorder, 
twelve aldermen, and eighteen common-councilmen. In 
1772 the corporation built a.very excellent market-place; 
and the town is well fupplied both with fea and river fifh. 
■ Queen Elizabeth gave the corporation a court of admiralty 
over the lea-coalts contiguous ; and the borough fends 
two members to parliament. 
BOS'TON (Thomas), born at Dunfe in Scotland, 
March 17, 1676, took his degrees in the univerfity of 
Edinburgh. In 1697 he was licenfed to preach; and 
at length became one of the mod popular preachers of 
that so-e. In 1719 he publifhed, Human Nature in its 
four-fold State, a book that has gone through many edi¬ 
tions. In 1721 he publifhed, in Latin, Remarks on the 
Vowel-Points ufed in Hebrew, which is now greatly 
efteemed on the continent of Europe, xle died at Ette- 
rick the 20th of May, 1732, aged 56 ; and left ready for 
the prefs, memoirs of himfelf, publifhed after his death. 
BOSTRYCHTUM, f. [from Gr. a bufh of 
hair.] In botany, a genus of the clafs cryptogamia, order 
filices. Generic effential chara&ers—Capfules nearly glo¬ 
bular, diffinCt, cluttered in a raceme-like fpike, one-celied, 
opening from the top to the bafe. 
Species. 1. Boftrycliium lunaria : frond folitary, pin¬ 
nate ; divisions crefcent-Ihaped. 
2. Boftrychium rutaceum: fronds moftly folitary, dou¬ 
bly pinnate; divifions ovate cut. 
3. Boftrychium virginianum : more than decompound, 
with pinnatifid cut lobes; fpike doubly pinnate. 
4. Boftrychium ternatum: frond.two-parted, more than 
decompound ; fubdivifions cut-ferrate ; fpike pinnate. 
5. Boftrychium zeylanicum: frond whorl-pinnate, with 
lanceolate fegments. 
voracious tribe, confifting of thirty fpecies ; they are 
very deftruftive to wood, by making thofe deep irregular 
channels fo often obferved in the bark and wood of trees. 
t. Boftrychus flavicornis, the yellow-horned bottry- 
chus: prevailing colour rufous; fliells black, fpinous, and 
toothed at the tip; antennae yellow. This is a fmall fpe¬ 
cies inhabiting North America. Thorax cyiindric, club 
of the antennae comprefted ; fhells ftriate and toothed, the 
hind tooth elongated into a fpine. Under part of the 
body, and legs, brown. 
2. Boftrychus cylindrus, the cylindrical hoftrychus. 
Colour black; fhells ftriate, downy at the tip, and toothed ; 
legs comprefted, teftaceous. In this alfo the antennae are 
yellow, the club large and comprefted. Inhabits Ger¬ 
many, in the oak. 
3. Boftrychus polygraphus, the many-lined boftrychus.^ 
Colour brownifh ; fhells glaucous, fomewhat obtufe. In¬ 
habits Europe. This is fliown on the Bignonia Plate II. 
p. 2 j. at fig. 4. 
4. Boftrychus fcolytus, the Englifh boftrychus. Gene¬ 
ral colour blackifh, and fmooth, front afliy, downy ; 
fhells truncate, ftriate, a little longer than the abdomen, 
which is retufe. Inhabits England, in the bark of the 
elm. 
5. Boftrychus bidens. General colour brown ; wing- 
cafes chefnut, retufe at the tip and toothed near the end. 
A fmall fpecies; inhabits JCeil. See the Plate, fig. 5. 
6. Boftrychus limbatus, the marginated boftrychus. 
General colour black : fliells yellowish, with brown mar¬ 
gins. Inhabits Pomerania. Shown on the fame Plate, at 
fig. 6. 
The other fpecies are the typographus, laricis, chalco- 
graphus, monographus, micographus, crenatus, oleiperda, 
oieae, pynweus, ligniperda, abietinus, villofus, piniperda, 
teftaceus, volvulus, pubefeens, ater, melanocephalus, vit- 
tatus, minutus, maculatus, bifafeiatus, fufeus, and pilofus. 
BOSU'LS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Aveiron : three leagues and a half north-eaft of Rhodes. 
BOS'WELL (James), eldeft fon.of Alexander Bofwell, 
lord Auchinlech, one of the judges in the fupreme courts 
of jufticiary in Scotland. He was bom at Edinburgh, 
Ocl. 29, 1740, and ftudied civil law in the univerfities 
of Edinburgh and Glafgow. Being intended for the 
bar, he was fent to Utrecht, and ftudied civil law under 
the German profefi'or Trotz ; during which time he vi- 
fited feveral parts of the Netherlands, and then commenced 
his travels. Palling from Utrecht into Germany, he pur¬ 
ified his route through Swifterland to Geneva; whence 
he crofted the Alps into Italy, having vifited on his jour- 
ney Voltaire at Ferney, and RoulTeau in the wilds of 
Neufchatel. Having vifited the moft remarkable cities in 
Italy, he failed to Corfica, travelled over every part of that 
ifland, and obtained the friendship of the illuftrious Paf- 
quale de Paoli, in whole palace he refided during his ftay 
at Corfica. He afterwards went to Paris, whence he re¬ 
turned to Scotland in 1766, and foon after became an 
advocate at the Scotch bar. In 1768, he publifhed his 
“ Account of Corfica, with Memoirs of General Paoli,” 
which has been tranflated into the German, Dutch, Ita¬ 
lian, and French, languages ; and was received with ex¬ 
traordinary approbation. 
In 1769, he was married to Mifs Margaret Montgomery, 
a lady who, to the advantages of a polite education, united 
good fenfe and a brilliant fancy. She was the daughter of 
David Montgomery, efq. related to the illuftrious family 
of Eglintoune, and representative of the ancient peerage 
of Lyle. The death of this amiable woman happened in 
June 1790. Mr. Bolwell has honoured her memory 
with an affeftionate elegiac tribute. She left him two 
fons and three daughters ; who, to ufe Mr. Bofwell’s own 
words, “ if they inherit her good qualities, will have no 
