3c# 
BAT 
anthera: oblong, twin, incumbent. II. Female on 2 fe- 
parate plant. Calyx: ament commonly flefhy, containing 
ip,me flolcules conglobated into an ovate quadrangular 
body: involucre two-leaved. Corolla: none. Piftillum: 
germ quadrangular, fattened to, tire ament ; ttyle none ; 
ttigma tw.o-lobed, obtufe, villofe. Pericarpiuin : berry 
conjoined with the rett, one-celled. Seeds : four, trian¬ 
gular, acuminate. — EJjtntiaL Character. Male. Ament, 
four- fold, imbricate. Calyx and Corolla none. Female. 
Ament ovate ; involucre two-leaved. Calyx and Corolla 
none. Stigma two-lobed, feflile. Berries conjoined, four- 
fee.ded. 
Of this there is but one fpecies, commonly called batis 
maritima. It is a flirub four feet high or lefs. Stems brit¬ 
tle, round, alb -coloured, much branched, diffuled, pro¬ 
cumbent : the young branches are four-cornered, four- 
furrowed, green, oppofite and upright. Leaves oblong, 
thicker above, acute, gradually drawing to a point towards 
the bale, flefhy, fucculent, flat above, convex beneath, 
leflile, oppofite, fcarcely an inch long, numerous. Stig¬ 
mas white. Fruits yellow or greeniflt yellow. The whole 
plant is very fait to the tails ; and it is burnt for barilla at 
Carthagena, &c. Native of the Caribbee illands, and the 
neighbouring continent. If is very common on all the fait 
marlhes on the fouth fide of Jamaica. Linmeus doubts 
whether this be diftinft: from the bucephalon of Plunder. 
BATIS'TE, a fine white kind of linen. cloth, manufac¬ 
tured in Fland.ers and Picardy. There are three kinds of 
batitte ; t he firft very thin; the fecond le.fs thin; and the 
third much thicker, called .Holland Batifte, as coming very 
near the goodnefs of Hollands. The chief ufe of batitte 
is for neck-clothes, furpiices, &c. 
BAT'LET, [ [front bat.] A fquare piece of wood, 
with a handle, ufed in beating linen when taken out of the 
buck.—I remember the killing of -her ballet , and the cow’s 
dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milked. Shakefpeare. 
BAT'MAN,/! in commerce, a kind of weight ufed at 
'Smyrna, confiding of fix okes. Forty of thefe batmans 
make a camel’s load, and amount to about feven hundred 
and twenty pounds Englilh weight. Batman, or baltament, 
is a weight ufed in Turkey and Perlia. The Turkilh bat¬ 
man is of two kinds; the larger containing fix okes, or 
c.cquos, at three pounds three quarters Paris weight the 
ocquo ; lo that the batman amounts to about twenty-two 
Paris pounds and a half; the linaUer, compofed likewife 
of fix ocquos, at fifteen ounces the ocquo, amounting to 
five pounds ten ounces. The Perfian batman is likewife 
of two kinds : one called the king's weight, batman de chain, 
or cheray, ufed for weighing moll of the neceffaries of 'life, 
equivalent to about twelve poundsand an half Paris weight; 
the othercalled batman c/Tauris, equal to fix pounds four 
ounces Paris or Amtterdam weight. Thefe are the pro¬ 
portions given by Tavernier. Chardin rates the Perfian 
batmans (omewhat lower, viz. the former at tvvelve.pounds 
twelve-oz. and the latter at five pounds fourteen oz. 
BAT'MANSON (John), prior to the Carthufian mo- 
nailery, or Chaiter-houle in the fuburbs of London. Fie 
was a Undent at Oxford, but it does not appear that lie 
took anv degree in that univerfity- He was intimately ac¬ 
quainted with Edward Lee archbifho.p of York, at whole 
reqnett lie wrote agaipli Erafmus and Luther. He died in 
7531, and was buried.in tire chapel belonging to the Char¬ 
ter-h'otife. Erafmus, in one of his letters to the bilhop of 
Winchetter, calls him an ignorant fellow. Pits, on the 
contrary, gives him tIre cha rafter of a man of Angular ge¬ 
nius, zeal, piety, and learning. He wrote, 1. Animad- 
Z’erfioncs in annotationes Erafjni in Nov. Tcjlamentnm. 2. A 
Treatife againtt fome of Luther’s works. Thefe two lie. 
afterwards retrafted. 3: Cohvmentaria. in proverbia Solvmonis. 
4. In cantica canticorum. 5. De nvica Magdalena. 6 . In- 
Jltiutiones noviciorum. 7. De contemptu muvdi. 8. DcChriJlo 
duodenni. 9. On the words, Mijjits eft, C 3 c. 
BAT'NIR, or Batinda, a town of Hindoftan, in the 
JMoultan country: 150 miles eatt-fouth-eali of MouUun, 
and ijo north-weft of Agitnere. 
BAT 
Et-v'TO, one of the Lad rone illands. Lat. 12. N ion 
142. G. Greenwich. 
Bato, a river of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, which 
runs into the Mediterranean: two miles Touui-eaft of Sca- 
lea, in the province of Calabria Citra. 
B, r FO A, a fmali ifland in the eatteru fea, near the 
wettcoaftof Sumatra, fituated on the equmoftial line. Lon. 
9S. E. Greenwich. 
BATOON',/. [bajlon, or baton, Fr. formerly {pelt baf. 
ton.] A ttafr or club : 1 J 
That does not make a man the worfe, 
Although his (boulders with batoon 
Be claw’d and cudgel!’d to fome tune. Hudibras. 
A tt unci.eon of rnarttial’s ttafF; a badge or military honour 
. BATOO'NS of St. Paul, Bastoncini di San Paolo, 
in natural hiftory, a name given by Tome of the Italian 
writers, as Alignttino Scilla, and others, to the lapides 7 u-. 
daici, or other fpines of echini. Thefe are found in vaft 
abundance in the ifland of Malta ; and as every tiling there 
is commemorated with fome title, with St. Paul at the 
end of it, thefe are called Baculi Sti. Pauli, or St. Paul's 
batoons. 
BATO PIT, AH, a town of North America, in the pro¬ 
vince of New Navarre : 120 miles north of Cinaloa. 
BA'TOS, /: in ichthyology, the name given by Ari- 
ftotle, and all the old writers, to the fkaite, or flaire. 
They have generally called the male b'ihos, and the female 
batis. It is a fpecies-of the Raia, and is dittinguiflied by 
Arfedi by the name of the variegated ray, with the middle 
of the back fmooth, and with one row of (pines on the tail. 
Albertus calls it the rayte, and rubiis. 
B ATRACHI'TES,y. [from a frog.3 The 
toad-rtone; fo called becaufe in fliape and colour it re- 
fembles a frog. 
BATRACHOMYOMA'CHIA,/. The battle of the 
frogs and the mice, the title of a fine burlefque poem o- e _ 
nerally aferibed to Homer. The fubjeft of the worsts 
the death of Plycharpax, a moufe, fon of Toxartes, who, 
being mounted on the back of Phyfignatluis, a frog, on 
a voyage to her palace, to which file had invited him“ was 
feized with fear when he faw himfelf in the middle of the 
pond, fo that he rumbled off and was-drowned. Phyfm- 
nathus being fufpefted to have fliaken him off with de- 
(ign, the mice demanded fatisfaftion, and unanimoufly de¬ 
clared war againtt the frogs. 
BATRACHO'SALIS,/'. in ichthyology, a name giveri 
by the Greeks to the lophivs, or rand pj'catrix of authors. 
B A'TR ACHUS, f. [from a frog.] An in¬ 
flammatory tumour under the tongue ; fo called becaufe 
they who are infefted with it croak like frogs. ' 
BATRACH us,/i A fpecies of the Si lxjr us. 
BAT'TA.yi [Indian.] A term ufed to denote the ex¬ 
tra allowance of pay given to officers ferving in the field, 
in the armies of India; and of pay, or proviflons, given 
to tire non-commi!fioned officers and privates. 
Batta, a province of Africa, once a powerful date, 
but now fubjeft to Congo : the principal towns are Batta’ 
the capital, Gangon, and Agifymba. 
BAT'T/E, a people of Germany, formerly' inhabitants 
of what is now called Htjfe. Being diflatisfied with their 
fituation there, they fettled on the ifland formed by the 
Vahalis and Rhine, which from them took the name of 
Batavia, or Batavornm Infula. Their government was : a 
mixture of monarchy, ariftocracy, and democracy. The 
principal men who exercifed jurifdiftion, and commanded 
the troops, in their refpeftive dittrifts, were chofen, as 
well as the kings, in an att'embly of the people. A hun¬ 
dred perfons (deeded from among the people prefidedover 
every country, and acled as chiefs in the difi'erent hamlets. 
The whole nation was, in fome meafure, an army always 
in readinefs. Each family compofed a body of militia 
which ferved under a captain of their own chooflng. 
BATTA'GLIA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
Naples, 
