BAS 
fentiment: of perfons.—Since the perfeflions ave fuch in 
the party I love, as the feeling of them cannot come unto 
any unnoble heart; fhall that heart, lifted up to fuch a 
height, be counted bafe? Sidney. —Of low dation ; of mean 
account; without dignity of rank; without honour. — If 
the lords and chief men degenerate, what fhall be hoped 
of the peafants and bafer people ? SpenJ'er. 
He, whofe mind 
Is virtuous, is alone of noble kind ; 
Though poor in fortune, of celeftial race; 
’Tis he commits the crime who calls him bafe. Drydcn. 
Bafe-born ; born out of wedlock, and by confequence of 
no honourable birth ; illegitimate : 
But fee thy bafe-born child, thy babe of fhame, 
Who, left by thee, upon our parifh came. Gay. 
Applied to metals, without value. It is ufed in this fenfo 
of all metal except gold and diver.—A guinea is pure gold, 
if it has nothing but gold in it, w ithout any alloy or bafer 
metal. Watts. —Applied to founds; deep, grave. It is 
more frequently written bafs, though the comparative ba¬ 
fer feems to require bafe. —In pipes, the lower the note- 
holes be, and the further from the mouth of" the pipe, the 
more bafe found they yield. Bacon. 
BASE,y. fas, Fr. bafs, Lat.] The bottom of any thing: 
commonly ufed for the lower part of a building: 
What if it tempt thee tow’rd the flood, my lord ? 
Or to the dread fiimmit of the cliff. 
That beetles o’er his bafe into the feaf Shakefpcare. 
The pedelfal of a flattie.—Men of weak abilities in great 
place, are like little flatues fet on great bafs, made the lefs 
by their advancement. Bacon. —That part of any ornament 
which hangs down, as houfings.—Phalaflus was all in 
white, having his bafs and caparifon embroidered. Sid¬ 
ney. —The broad part of any body; as, the bottom of a 
cone. Stockings, or perhaps the armour for the legs, [from 
bas, Fr.] 
Nor fhall it e’er be faid that wight, 
With gauntlet blue and bafs white, 
And round blunt truncheon by his fide, 
So great a man-at-arms defy’d. Hudibras.. 
The place from which racers or tilters run ; the bottom of 
the field ; the career , the darling-pod : 
He faid ; to their appointed bafe they went; 
With beating heart th’ expefting fign receive, 
And, darting all at once, the barrier leave. Dryden. 
The firing that gives a bafe found : 
At thy well-fliarpened thumb, from fliore to Ihore, 
The trebles fqueak for fear, the bafs roar. Dryden. 
An old ruflic play, written by Skinner bays, and in fome 
counties called prifon bars. 
Base, in chemiflry. See Basis. 
Base, or Basis, in architeflure, denothes the lower 
part of a column or pilafler. See Architecture. 
Base, in geometry, the lowed fide of any figure. Any 
fide of a figure may be confidered as its bale, according to 
the pofition in which it may be conceived as Handing; but 
commonly it is underdood as of the lowed lide: as the 
bale of a triangle, of a cone, cylinder, &c. 
To Base, v.a. [bafer, Fr.] To embafe ; to make lefs 
valuable by admixture of meaner metals.—I am doubtful 
whether men have diffidently refined metals, which we 
cannot bafe: as, whether iron, brafs, and tin, be refined to 
the height. Bacon. 
Base Court, [ bajfe cour, Fr.] Any inferior court, that 
is not of record, as the court-baron, &c. Kitch. 95. 
Base Court. Lower court; not the chief court that 
leads to the houfe ; the back yard; the farm yard. Obfkte: 
■ My lord, in the bafe court he doth attend. 
To fpeak with you. Shakefpcare. 
Base Estate, [ bas flat, Fr.] That edate which bafe 
Vol. II. No. 102. 
BAS 773 
tenants have in their lands. And bafe tenants, according 
to Lambard, are tliofe who perform villainous f?rv,ces to 
their .lords; but there is a difference between a bale edate 
and villenage; for to hold in pure villenage is to do alL 
that the lord will command him ; and, if a copy-holder 
have but a bafe edate, he, not holding by the performance 
of every commandment of his lord, cannot be laid to hold 
in villenage. Kitck.ys. See Tenures. 
Base Fee, is a tenure in fee at the will of the lord, 
didinguifhed from focage free tenure: but lord Coke fays, 
that a bafe fee, or qualified fee, is wliat may be defeated by 
limitation, or on entry, &c. Co. Lit. r, iS. Bajfa tenura, or 
bafe tenure, was a holding by villenage, or other cuftoma- 
ry iervice, oppofed to alia tenura, the higher tenure in 
capite or by military fervice. 
Base Line, in perfpeflive, denotes the common fec- 
tion of the picture and the geometrical plane. 
Base-minded, adj. Mean-fpirited ; worthlefs.— 1 1 fig- 
nifieth, as it feemeth, no more than abjedt, oaf-minded, 
falfe-hearted, coward, or nidget. Camden. 
Base Ring, of a cannon, is the great ring next behind 
the vent or touch-hole. 
BA.SELE'CE, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
ples, and province of Capitanata, feven miles fouth-fouth- 
wed of Volturara. 
BASEL'I.A, f. [a bafisfucalis, Lin. a Malabar name. 
Rheede .] In botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order 
trigynia, natural order holoraceas. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx: none. Corolla: feven-cleft, pitcher- 
fliaped ; the two outer divifions broader, one within the 
red, converging above, Hefliy at the bafe. (Gaertner calls 
this the calyx, and fays that the clefts are front five to fe¬ 
ven.) Stamina : filaments five, Tabulate, equal, fadened 
to the corolla, and fliorter than it; antherae roundifh. Pif- 
tillum : germ ftiperior, fubglobular; dyles three, filiform, 
the length of the ftamens ; digmas oblong, on one fide the 
tops of the dyles. Pericarpiunt: corollaperinanent,clo- 
fed, flefhy, counterfeiting a berry. Seed: dngle, round- 
ifli.— EJfentiai Character. Calyx none. Corolla feven- 
cleft ; two oppodte dividonS diorter, at length berried. 
Seed one. 
Species. 1. Bafella rubra, or red Malabar nightfhade : 
leaves dat, peduncles lintple. This has thick drong fiic- 
culent dalks and leaves, of a deep purple colour. The 
plant requires to be fupperted, for it will climb eight 
or ten feet high, when the plants are kept in a dove or 
glafs-cafe, and produce a great number of fide branches; 
but, if they are expofed to the open air, they will not grow 
fo large, nor will they perfeft their feeds, except it be in 
very warm feafons ; when they are placed in the bark.dove, 
they will often live through the whiter, and produce great 
quantities of flowers and feeds. The flowers of this plant 
have no great beauty, but the plant is preferved for the 
odd appearance of the dalks and leaves. The fruit is a 
fort of fpurious berry, of a very dark red colour, flatted 
a little, furrowed crodwife at top, formed out of the ca¬ 
lyx (or corolla), and containing a dngle nut, of a fnbglobu- 
lar form, with five very obfeure fireaks, and a large um¬ 
bilical aperture at the bafe. Medicus affirms, that the 
nut has naturally three cells, with one feed in each. It is 
a native of the Ead Indies, Ambpyna, Japan, &c. and was 
cultivated in 1739 by Mr. Miller. From the berries of 
this fort a beautiful colour is drawn; but, when ufed for 
painting, does not continue very long, but changes to a 
pale colour; though perhaps this beautiful colour might 
be dxed, fo as to become very ufeful; for we have been 
adored, that the juice of thefe berries has been uled tor 
daining callicoes in India. 
1. Bafella alba, or white Malabar nightfhade. This has 
fmaller dalks, the leaves are oblong and flaccid, and the 
flowers and fruit are fmaller than the foregoing. It is a 
native of China and Amboyna. 
3. Bafella lucida, or diming Malabar night (hade: leaves 
fubcordate; peduncles crowded, branching. This is a na^ 
tive of the Fall Indies. All the three forts have a very 
9 L nea t 
