B O T 
rcafon to complain of their lot. Dos mag na parent uni virlus." 
In 1782 lord Auchinleck died, and Mr. Bofvvell came to 
his patrimonial eftate. In 1783, he publifhed his cele¬ 
brated letter to the people of Scotland, concerning the go¬ 
vernment in India ; which he communicated to Mr. Pitt, 
who gave it his approbation. This firft letter was loon 
followed by a l'econd, in which he dilplayed bis ufual 
energy and political abilities. In 1785, Mr. Bofwell pub- 
liftied “ A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides” with Dr. 
Johnfon ; which met a fuccefs (imilar to Isis entertaining 
account of Corfica. This year lie removed to London, 
and was called to the Englilh bar. But his profeilional 
bufinefs was interrupted, by preparing his celebrated work, 
<! The Life of Samuel Johnfon, LL. D.” This was pub¬ 
lifhed in 1790, in 2 vols. 4-to. and was received by the 
world with extraordinary avidity. It is a faithful hiftory 
of Johnfon’s life ; and exhibits a molt interdting picture 
of the character of that illuftrious moralift-, delineated 
with a mafterly hand. The preparation of a l'econd edi¬ 
tion of this work, which has been publifhed (ince in 3 vols. 
8vo. was the laft literary performance of Mr. Bofwell. 
Soon after his return from a vilit to Auchinleck, he was 
feized with a diforder which put an end to his life, at his 
houfe in Portland-ftreet, on the 19th of June, 1795, in 
the fifty-fifth year of his age. 
BOS'WORTH, or Market-Bosworth, an ancient 
town in the county of Leicelier, lituated on a hill, cele¬ 
brated for the battle fought near it between Richard Ill. 
and the earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. on the 
2 2d of All gull, 1485, in which Richard was flain, and the 
earl of Richmond crowned in the field : eleven miles well 
of Leicelier, and io6x north-north-welt of London. 
BOTAL'LUS (Leonard), phyfician to the duke ©f 
Alenyon, and to Henry III. of France, born at Adi in 
Piedmont. He fir it introduced at Paris the practice of 
letting blood, which was condemned by the faculty ; but 
loon after his death it came into practice with all the phy- 
ficians. He publithed feveral books in phyfic and iur- 
gcry; and the belt edition of his. works is that of Leyden, 
,1660, 8vo. 
BOTA'NICAL, or Bota'nic, adj. [ botaniqut >, Fr. 
botanicus , Lat. of j 3 ot«v/i, Gr. an herb, ot (Sot©', victuals, 
of(Sotracj, to feed.] Pertaining to herbs; Hcillecl in plants; 
as, botanical critics. Addifon. 
BO'TANIST, f One lkilled in plants; one who flu - 
dies the various fpecies of plants : 
Then fpring tfie living herbs, beyond the power 
Of botanifl to number up their tribes. Thomfon. 
BOTANO'LOGY,y. [of ( 3 ora»» and A tyu, Gr.] A de- 
feription of herbs and plants. 
BOTA'NOMANCY,/. [jSotmu, an herb, and 
divination.] A divination by herbs, and elpecially by thole 
of fage or the fig-tree. The perfons that confulted, wrote 
their own names and the queftions upon leaves, which 
they expofed to the wind, and as many of the letters as 
remained in their own places were taken up, and, being 
joined together, were accounted an anlwer to the quellion. 
BOT A'NO-SOPHISTS, f. Perfons lkilled in botany, 
or the knowledge of plants, &c. 
BO'TANY, _/I [from ( 3 otccsv ?, herba, an herb.] The 
fcience of plants; or that part of natural hiftory which 
treats of vegetables. This branch of knowledge is very 
ancient. Solomon is recorded as having known all the 
plants from the cedar of Lebanon to the hylfop upon thd 
wall. Hippocrates is the next, of whom we have any 
valuable account: he fpeaks of the virtues of about two 
hundred and thirty plants, but does not defcribe them.. 
Cratevas, or Crateias, a cotemporary of Hippocrates, de- 
feribes thofe plants of whofe virtues Hippocrates gives an 
account. After him llourifhed Ariftotle, and then Theo- 
phraltus, the dilciple of Ariftotle, about 300 years before 
(Thrift. There yet.remain nine books of his on the hiftory 
of plants, and fix on the caul.es of them: he reckons a-bout 
Vol. III. No. 127. 
3 O T ,33 
300 plants. Among the Romans, Cato, Varra, Virgil* 
and Columella, might be mentioned ; but the mod emi¬ 
nent were Diofcorides, who lived under Antony and Cleo¬ 
patra ; and C. Plinius Secundus, under Vefpalian and Ti- 
tiiSi The; former is called th e prince of botanijls, though 
the number of plants he has deferibed amount only to 600; 
but then he furpafted all others in afeertaining their vir¬ 
tues and medical ufe. Galen, though he did not write 
profeftedly on botany, has introduced many ufeful obfer- 
vationson the fubjedi ; and other phyficians profecuted this 
ftudy, as far as it was immediately connedied with their 
profelTion, from the fecond to the (ixth century of the 
Chriftian tera ; fuch as Oribafius, Aetius, Trallianus, and 
P. Htgineta. The principal Arabian hotanifts, who cul¬ 
tivated this fcience from the eighth to the twelfth century, 
were Mefue, Serapio, Razis, Avicenna, and Averrhoes. 
The (uccceding period, till the fifteenth century, was very 
unfavourable to fcience : however, in this century, and 
efpecially in the next, botany was revived by the pens of 
Leonicenus, Brafavolus, Cordus, Fuchfius, Bodteus, Mat- 
thiolus, Dalecampius, and others. Turner, Gerard, and 
Tradefcant, were the firft hotanifts in England : they ap¬ 
plied themfelves to the culture of medical and rare plants, 
towards the clofe of the fixteenth century. But it was 
after this period that botany began to acquire a confider- 
able degree of importance and reputation, by the ingenuity 
and induftry employed in collecting and clafting new fpecies 
of plants. It would be tedious to recount all the names 
of thofe who are diftinguifhed in this refpefl ; let it fuf- 
fice to mention Gefner, Dodonasus, Caefalpinus, Profper 
Alpinus, the two Bauhirtes, Columna, Parkinfon, Plukene.t, 
Morrifon, Malpighi, Grew, Hermanrrus, Ray, Magnol, 
Tournefort, Sloane, Sherrard, Linneus, and P. Miller; 
and, in our prefent day, thofe who have fo ably and ele¬ 
gantly improved the w'orks of the preceding authors; as 
Dr. Gmeiin, the younger Linneus, Hoffman, Jacqtiin, 
Retzius, Schreber, Bulliard, Berkenhout, Hedwig, Thun- 
berg, Jn. Miller, Hill, Dickfon, Stackhoufe, Velley, Milne, 
Blackwell, Trew, Curtis, Smith, Woodville, Withering, 
&c. Among which notices we muft not omit the very e’e- 
gant collection of rare and curious plants from the co.dl 
of Coromandel, now pub.liftiing by Dr. Roxburgh under 
the infpection of Sir Jofeph Banks, at the inftance of the 
honourable Eaft-India Company, for the foie purpofe of 
farther illuftrating and improving the fcience of botany. 
But of all the means which have been thought condu¬ 
cive to the fuccefsful cultivation of botany, none have 
proved of fo much importance as the clear and diftinft 
methods of arrangement fuggefted by modern botanifts; 
whereby the feveral claftes, genera, fpecies, and varieties, 
of plants, may be readily diftinguifhed. Indeed it is eafy 
to forefee, that, in proportion as the fyftem of Linnaeus 
prevails, and different writers agree in adopting the fame 
language, the ftudy of botany mud be greatly facilitated 
and promoted. That celebrated writer diftributes the 
fyftems which had previously obtained into heterodox and 
orthodox. The former are founded in an alphabetical ar¬ 
rangement ; in the ftruclure of the root ; in the different 
fpecies of flowers; in the habit of plants; their time of 
flowering; their native foil and climate ; their medicinal 
ufe, and the order of the difpenfaries. The orthodox fyf¬ 
tems, as he calls them, are either univerfal or partial ; 
fuch as belong to plants in general, or fuch as are accom¬ 
modated to the nomenclature and arrangement of particu¬ 
lar kinds. The univerfal fyftems are four; though, by 
various modifications,'this number has been confiderably 
augmented. Linneus has diftinguifhed the feveral patrons 
of them under the claftes .and -appellations of JruElifia 
corotijice, calycijlce ., and fcxnaljlcr. The frubtifhe are fuch 
as form the feveral claftes of vegetables from the pericar- 
pium, the feed, and the receptacle ; of this number aro 
Caefalpinus, Morrifon, Ray, Knaut, Hermann, and Boer- 
haave. The coroliftat diftinguifti the feveral clalfes by 
-means of the corolla and petals; fuch are Rivinus and 
3 O Tou rne foi% 
