BRA 
for the avniablcnefs of his manners, and the depth of his 
earning. In 1705, he publilhed Come ingenious diflerfa- 
tions upon medals and other monuments, w hich opened to 
him the doors of the academy of infcriptions and bedjes-let- 
tres. He was received under the title of pupil, and the 
year following he became perpetual fecretary. The French 
academy too admitted him of their fociety in 1715. He 
was made keeper of the royal cabinet of medals in 1719 ; 
and the year after he fet out for Holland, in the defign of 
augmenting that grand collection. He had the infpeftion 
of the library in 1745, during the illnefs of M. Maboul ; 
having laid down the place of fecretary to the academy 
three years before. He died in 1753, aged feventy-four. 
He was as eflimable for the fweetnefs of his temper as for 
the depth of his knowledge. He left feveral works, viz. 
The edition of the firft fifteen volumes of the Memoires de 
1 ’Academic des Infcriptions et Belles-Lettres. The hif- 
torical panegyrics which embellifti thefe memoirs were 
printed in 2 vols. 121110. They are ingenious and agree¬ 
able. 2. The Medallic Hiftory of LouisXIV. brought 
down to his death, in 1723, folio. 3. The Hiftory of the 
Emperor Tetricus, illuftrated by Medals. 4. Several Dif- 
fertations on the Ancient Medals, difperfed for the moil 
part throughout the Memoires de l’Academie des Belles- 
Lettres. 5. He publifiied the Catalogue of his Library, in 
1745, folio. It was well chofen, and full of rare and cu¬ 
rious hooks. This catalogue is very much in reqneft among 
the biographers, and fells at a high price. Another was 
publifiied after his death, Paris, 1753, 8vo. 
BOZOU'LS, a town of France, in the department of 
the Aveiron : ten miles north-eaft of Rhodez. 
BOZZO'LO, a town and fmall principality of Italy, ad¬ 
joining to the Cremonefe, formerly belonging to the duchy 
of IVIantiia, from which it was feparated. The town was 
fortified in 1734. It is fifteen miles weft of Mantua, and 
twenty eaft of Cremona. 
B QUA'DRO, (iu adrato, or Dur a LE,yi in mufic, 
called by the French b qnarre, is what we call B natuial or 
Jhaip, in diftinttion to B mol or fat. See Music. 
BRA, a town of Italy, in the principality of Piedmont, 
with three parifh churches : ten miles fouth-eaft of Car- 
magnola, and two north-weft of Cherafco. 
BRA'AN, a river of Scotland, which ruris into the Tay, 
near Dtuikeld, in the county of Perth. 
BR AB ANCIO'NES, f. in middle-age writers, a kind 
of mercenary troops, who-hired themfelves to fight for 
any that could pay them beft. The word is varioufiy writ¬ 
ten by the hiftorians of thofe days; all given them from 
the country of Brabant, which was the chief nurfery of 
them. They are frequently confounded with the Routiers , 
Roturiers , Ruptarii, Ruterarii, Cortercaux, &c. 
BRATB ANCON, or Brabanjon, a town, with the ti¬ 
tle of principality, in the county of Hainaut: four leagues 
eaft of Maubeuge. 
BRA'BANT {Duchy of), one of the provinces in the 
Catholic Netherlands, bounded on the north by Hollandand 
Guelderland, on the eaft by Guelderland and the biftiop- 
ric of Liege, on the fouth by Namur and Hainaut, and on 
the weft by Flanders and Zealand. It is about eighty 
leagues in circumference, and contains twenty-fix walled 
towns, befides others of lefs confequence. It was firft 
erefted into a duchy in the feventh century. It was di¬ 
vided into four quarters, viz. the quarter of Louvain, 
‘Which contains the towns of Tirlemont, Leeuw, Arfchot, 
Died, Gemblours, Judoigne, Hannuye, Haelen, Landen, 
and Sichem ; the quarter of Bruftels, which contains Ni- 
velle and Vilvorde ; the quarter of Antwerp which con¬ 
tains Liere, Herentals, Breda, Berg-op-Zoom, and Steen- 
berghen, and the quarter of Bois-le-Duc, which con¬ 
tains Grave, Helmont, Eyndhoven, Raveftein, and Meg- 
hem. Brabant was one of the firft places occupied by the 
French after their paffage of the Rhine. The dukes of 
ffrabant became kings of France: it pafTed to the dukes 
of Burgundy, then to the kings of Spain, and from them 
to the emperors of Germany, The quarter of Bois-le- 
Vob. III. No. 134. 
BRA 3 ?7 
Due, and a confiderable part of the quarter of Antwerp, 
had been taken from tlte Spaniards by the States of Hol¬ 
land, and was called Dutch Brabant. A fmall part towards 
the fouth was known by the name of Walloon Brabant. 
Louvain was the principal city, but the court generally 
redded at Bruftels. It is watered by feveral capital rivers, 
of which the Sclield, the Ruppel, and file Donunel, are 
the chief. 
BRAB'BLE.yi \brabbdcn> Dut.] A clamorous conteft; 
a fquabble ; a broil : 
Here in the ftreets, defperate in fitanie and ftate, 
In private brabble did we apprehend him. Shakfpcare. 
To BRAB'BLE, v. n. To clamour; to conteft noifilv. 
BRAB'BLER, f. A clamorous, qua-rrelfome, doify, 
fellow. 
BR ABEI-'UM,y. [Gr. a feeptre.] Tlte African Ai.- 
mond. In botany, a genus of the clals polygamia, order 
monoecia. The generic characters are-—Calyx : amentum 
with ova’e, obtufe, three-flowered, pubefeenr, feales. Co¬ 
rolla : one-petalled, funnel-form, four-parted ; divifions 
linear, obtufe, rolled back at top, deciduous. Stamina : 
filaments four, capillary, inferted into the bafe of the feg- 
ments of the corolla, and fcarcely fo long as that; antliera; 
fmall, gaping on the (ides. Piftillttm : germ very fmall, 
villofe ; ftyle filiform, the length of the ftamens, fomewhat 
thicker at top ; ftigma fimple. Pericarpium : drupe very 
dry, roundifh, villofe. Seeds: nut globular. I. Male in 
the fame tree. Calyx : amentum as in the hermaphrodites. 
Corolla: one-petalled funnel-form, four or five cleft; clefts 
oblong, revolute. Stamina: filaments four or five, infert¬ 
ed into the throat, of a middling length ; antherae oblong, 
faftened to the infide of the filaments, except the tip. Pif- 
tillum : germ, none ; ftyle filiform, of a middling length ; 
ftigmas two, erect.— EJJential Charatlcr. Hermaphrodite, 
feales of the ament; corolla, four-parted, revolute above ; 
ftamina, four; piftillttm, one; drupe, roundifh ; feed glo¬ 
bular. Male, feales of the ament; corolla, four or five 
parted ; ftamina, four inferted into the throat ; ftyle bifid, 
abortive. 
There is but one fpecies, called Brabeium ftellulifolium, 
or African almond. This tree riles with an upright Item, 
which is foft and full of pith, and covered with a brown 
bark. Horizontal branches are fent out at every joint, the 
lower ones being longeft, and every tier diminifhing to the 
top, fo as to form a fort of pyramid. There are leaves 
at each joint, from four to five inches long, and half an 
inch broad in the middle, of a deep green on their upper 
fide, but of a p.ale ruftet colour on their under, indented 
on their edges, Handing on very ihort foot-ftalks. The 
flowers are produced towards the ends of the (hoots, com¬ 
ing out from between the leaves quite round the branches : 
they are of a pale colour, inclining to white : appear early 
in the fpring, and fall away without any fruit fucceeding 
them in this country. It is an amentaceous tree, with thick 
branches. Leaves in whorls with lar^e ferrations. Aments 
pubefeent, with ovate, obtufe, three-ilovvered, feales. Sta¬ 
mens and ftyle the length of the corolla. The Brabyla 
Capenfis, deferibed in Maht. 137, is probably the fame 
tree bearing hermaphrodite flowers. The branches are ri¬ 
gid, purple, ftreaked, fubvillofe. Leaves in whorls of 
(even, petioled, lanceolate, rather rigid with remote ferra- 
tures, a hand’s breadth long, fmooth above, netted beneath ■ 
petioles ereft, pubefeent. Aments oblong, cylindric, pe¬ 
tioled, round, eredt, lateral, often two between each leaf, 
fhorter than tlte leaves, rather rigid, two inches long, im¬ 
bricate : feales ovate, acute, many-flowered. Corollule 
funnel-ftiaped, five-cleft. Stamens five. Style one. It 
is a native of the country about the Cape of Good Hope, 
where it becomes a tree of middling growth ; but in Eu¬ 
rope it feldom grows above eight or nine feet high. 
Propagation and Culture. This tree is with difficulty pro 
pagated by layers, which are often two years before they 
make roots ftrong enough to be taken from the old plants ; 
when the branches are laid down it will be a good method 
4 R to 
