BAN 
Native of'Guiana, on trees, by the fidcs of meadows and 
fields ; flowering and fruiting in Aiigull ; obferved there 
by Aublet. 
19. Banifteria orbiculata: item twining, leaves orbicu- 
late, beneath tomentofe and lilky, petioles biglandula'r. 
Stem long, branched, jointed. Leaves large, cordate at 
the bale, efpecially the lower ones. Native of Jamaica, 
Guadaloupe, and St. Domingo. 
20. Banifteria ciliata : leaves cordate-roundifti, eared, 
fmooth, ciliate, Stem fmooth, (lender, twining, reddilh, 
rough, with little white dots. Native of Bratil, where it 
was found by Dombey. 
21. Banifteria auriculata; ftetn twining, leaves fubfa- 
gittate, fmooth, with rounded lobes, flowers in umbels. 
Native of Rio-Janeiro, and found tiiere by Commerfon. 
22. Banifteria ovata : Item twining, leaves ovate, acute, 
quite entire, flowers in umbels, involucres ftipulcd. Na¬ 
tive of the ifland of Dominique, where it was found by 
Defportes and Surian. 
23. Banifteria palmata: (lem twining, leaves palmate, 
tomentofe beneath, petioles bighindular. Leaves divided 
into five acute parts, the middle one longeft, cordate at 
their bafe ; deep green and fmooth above, very tomentofe 
and vv lvitilh beneath. Native of St. Domingo, and found 
there by Defportes. 
24.. Banifteria fagittata : (lem twining, leaves fagittate, 
large, tomentofe, petioles biglandular. The leaves have 
one tooth on each tide towards the tip ; they are fmooth 
above, but tomentofe beneath. Native of St. Domingo, 
and found there by Defportes. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants, being all natives 
of hot countries, cannot be preferved in England, unlefs 
they are kept in a bark-ftove. They are propagated by 
feeds, which muft be procured from the countries where 
they grow naturally. Thefe feeds (hould be fully ripe 
when gathered, and put into land or earth, in which they 
fhould be fent to England, othervvife they will lofe their 
vegetative quality ; for from a large parcel of thefe feeds 
which were fent over in papers, as frefh as they could 
poffibly arrive here, very few plants were raifed, and thofe 
did not appear till the fecond year; therefore when the 
feeds arrive, they fhould be immediately fown in pots, 
and, if it happens in autumn or winter, the pots fhould 
be plunged into a hot-bed of tanner’s bark, where the heat 
is very moderate, and lecured from froft and wet, till 
fpring, when they muft be removed to a frefh hot-bed, 
which will bring up the plants; but, if they fhould not ap¬ 
pear the firft year, the pots fhould be preferved till the 
next fprihg, to fee if the feeds will grow. When the 
plants come up, they mult be put into feparate pots, filled 
with light earth, and plunged into the bark bed, after 
which they muft be treated like other tender plants from 
the fame countries. See Gouania. 
BANK,yi [banc, Sax.J The earth arifing on each fide 
of a water. We fay, properly, the Jkore of the fea, and 
the banks of a river, brook, or finall water : 
’Tis happy w hen our dreams of knowledge flow, 
To fill their banks , but not to overthrow. Denham. 
Any heap of earth piled up.—They befiged him in Abel 
of Bethmaachah, and they caft up a bank againft the city ; 
and it flood in the trench. Samuel. 
It is provided by flat. 9 Geo. c. 22. that if any perfon 
Ihall unlawfully and malicioufly break down the head, 
mound, or bank, of any fifti-pond, whereby the fiflt fhall 
be loft or deflroyed ; or break down or cut away the bank 
of any river, or any fea-bank, whereby any lands (hall be 
overflowed or damaged ; he (hall be guilty of felony with¬ 
out benefit of clergy. 
Bank,/! [from banc, Fr.] A feat or bench of rowers: 
Mean time the king with gifts a veil'd (lores. 
Supplies the banks with twenty chofen oars. Dryden. 
—That banks of oars were not in the fame plane, but raifed 
above one another, is evident from deferiptions of ancient 
illips. Arbulhnot. 
BAN. 6; 1 
Bank, in fea language, denotes an elevation of the 
ground, at the bottom of the fea, foas (ometimes to fur- 
mount tiie furface of the water, or, at lead, to leave the 
water Co (hallow, as ufually not to allow a veil'd to float 
over it. In this fenfe, bank amounts to much the fame 
with flat, (hoal, &c. There are banks of fund, and others 
of (lone, called alfo fnelves or rocks. In the north (ea, 
they deferibe banks of ice, which are large pieces of that 
fubftance floating about. Vapours at fea (ometimes occa- 
ficn inch a deceptio vijus, that mariners imagine they fed 
land with trees, -'See. They call thefe fog-banks. A re¬ 
markable appear..ace of tins kind is deferibed in Dr. 
llawkfwortli’s Account of the Voyages to the Southern 
llemifphere, vol.i. p. 10. A long narrow bank is fome- 
times called a rib. The bank, main bank, or great bank, 
denotes technically that of Newfoundland, tlie region of the 
cod fifhery. It is called the great bank, not only by tea (on 
of its vaft extent, being, according to the Englifli compu¬ 
tation, two hundred mites long, and, according to the 
French, one hundred leagues, or three hundred miles; 
hut alfo on account of feveral (mailer banks near it, where 
cod are alfo caught. Thefe la It the French call bavqv.c- 
zeaux. This is one of thofe banks which have water e- 
nough to float a (hip, and which, on this account, are not 
dangerous. Banks that are dangerous are ufually diftin- 
guiffied by a buoy, poll, or the like. On charts, (and- 
banks are ufually marked by little dots, aud banks of done 
by erodes. The Colours of the buoys are alfo varied ac¬ 
cordingly ; fand-banks being denoted by light coloured 
buoys, and rocks by black ones. In large rivers, as the 
Elbe, &c. fand-banks, by high tides and inundations, are 
liable to change places ; care is therefore taken to fhift the 
buoys from time to time, to (hew the true channel of the 
river. An exaif knowledge of the banks, their extent, 
and the depth of w'ater on them, forms the mod eflential. 
part of the fcience of a pilot, and a mafter of a (hip. If 
the veil'd be large, and draw much w ; ater, great attention 
will be neceftdry to keep clear of the banks : on the con¬ 
trary, if it be (mail, the fame banks afford a fine afylum, 
where it may brave the larged and flouted veftels, which 
dare not follow it. By means of this barrier, many a finall 
veil'd has efcaped a purfuing enemy. 
Bank, in the common law, is ufually taken for a feat 
or bench of judgment ; as Bank le Roy, (B. R.) the court 
of King’s Bench ; Bank le Common Pleas, (B. C.) the Bench 
or Court of Common Pleas, or the Common Bench ; called 
alfo in Latin Bancus Regis, and Bancus Communium Placito- 
rum. Jus Band, or the privilege of the bench, was an. 
ciently allowed only to the king’s judges, quifummam ad~ 
minijlrant jufitiamy for inferior courts were not allowed 
that privilege. There are, in each of the terms, dated 
days, called days in bank, dies in banco, that is, days of ap¬ 
pearance in the court of Common Pleas. They are gene- 
nerally at the diftance of about a week from each other, 
and regulated by fome feftival of the church. On fome 
one of thefe days in bank all original writs muft be made 
returnable ; and therefore they are generally called the re¬ 
turns of that term. 
Bank, in commerce, is a denomination given to certain 
focieties, or communities, who take on them the charge 
of the money of private perfons, to keep it fecure, and 
pay whenfoever demanded. The word bank, in this fenfe, 
comes from the Italian banco, a bench, whereon the an¬ 
cient money-changers fat in the public markets; or, as 
others think, a table whereon they told their money. It 
cannot be doubted but that the beginning of traffic was by 
exchanging one commodity for another, as men could bell 
fuit each others occafions. But the neceffities of men be¬ 
ing fo various and different, ii. refpeft to the quantity and 
quality of requifites, money was inftituted as the moft con¬ 
venient medium for commerce; whereby people might 
procure whatfoever they flood in need of, in quantities 
according to their exigencies. Yet this way of payment is 
attended with many inconveniencies, as the trouble in 
counting the money, hazard in fecuring it from the at- 
j tempts 
