Botany.

Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Botany. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    been built upon the south side of Beacon Hill. The lower part is constructed in a plain and simple style of architecture, with red brick. The extent of the front is 173 feet, and over the centre rises a spacious dome, terminated by a circular lantern, 100 feet above the foundation. The prospect from this is magnificent, surpassing everything else of the kind perhaps in the United States. The town, with its numerous buildings, the harbour, islands, shipping, a fine country in¬ terspersed with villas, and about twenty flourish¬ ing towns, are to be seen here. Other important improvements have also been executed. On the south side of State Street, stands a very lofty and extensive hotel, under the direction of one of the principal merchants in the town. The house is seven stories high, and occupies a large extent of ground. An extensive range of lofty warehouses has been erected upon India wharf: they are built of red brick, with much neatness and uniformity. Offices for the merchants are below, and the upper part of the building is appropriated to the reception of goods. A short distance from these warehouses, to the northward, is Long Wharf, or Boston Pier, which extends from the bottom of State Street, upwards of 1750 feet into the har¬ bour. Its breadth is above 104 feet. On the north side of this wharf is a range of large ware¬ houses, extending the whole length of the pier. Most of the old buildings have been pulled down, and handsome warehouses, similar to those on India Wharf, erected on their sites. The ground floors of these warehouses are occupied by wholesale or retail stores, merchants’ offices, &c. The upper parts are appropriated to the warehousing of goods. At the end of this pier there are upwards of seventeen feet of water at ebb tide. Boston, West, contains the dwelling houses of the principal merchants. A number of elegant buildings have been erected here within these few years, and wide spacious streets, consisting of handsome private houses, are still forming throughout that end of the town. Boston is well paved, and has excellent foot-paths of flag¬ stones. The markets are situated near each other, close to the water side, and are supplied with every description of provisions in the greatest plenty. Besides its connexion with Charlestown, it is also united by a bridge 3,840 feet long, with the town of Cambridge ; both bridges are kept in. good order by the produce of a cent. toll. The population, in 1800, was 24,937 ; in 1820, 43,000. It is 252 miles north¬ east of New York ; 347 north-east of Philadel¬ phia, and 500 north-east of Washington Boston (Thomas), a pious divine of the church of Scotland, who flourished about the end of the seventeenth century. lie wrote many books on divinity, which were long extremely popular. Among these, his illustration of the Assembly’s Catechism, his Treatise on the Covenant, his Human Nature in its fourfold State, and his Crook in the Lot, have gone through a vast number of editions. BOSTRICHUS, in entomology, a genus of coleopterous insects, whose distinguishing cha¬ racters are the antenna clavated, the club solid ; thorax convex, with a slight margin; head in¬ flected, and concealed under the thorax. BOSWELL (James, Esq.) of Auchinleck, the son of the Hon Alexander Boswell, lord Auchin¬ leck, was born at Auchinleck in 1740, and studied the civil law at Edinburgh. In 1760 he visited London, for which place he ever retained a par¬ tiality ; and was desirous, at this period, of a commission in the guards; but was withheld by parental authority. In 1763 he went to Utrecht, and proceeded through Switzerland to Italy, where he contracted an intimacy with Paoli of Corsica. He returned to Scotland in 1766, and, being admitted an advocate, was employed in the celebrated Douglas cause, the particulars of which he published in a pamphlet. In 1768 he printed An Account of Corsica, of which Dr. Johnson spoke in high terms. The year following he married Miss Mary Montgomery, his cousin, who, at her death in 1790, left him two sons and three daughters. In 1782 he lost his father, on which he removed to London, with a view to profes¬ sional practice, but never succeeded; the only appointment he obtained was that of recorder of Carlisle. In 1785 he published A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, which met with a favorable reception ; as likewise did his more important work, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. which appeared in 1790, in 2 vols. 4to, and forms one of the most exquisite and amusing de¬ lineations of character in our language. Mr. Boswell was also the author of Two Letters to the People of Scotland, printed in 1783 ; the Hypochondriac, a series of papers in the London Magazine, and several Miscellaneous Pieces in various periodical publications. He died in London in 1795. BOS WORTH, a market town of Leicester¬ shire, on a high hill, memorable for the decisive battle fought near it between Richard HI. and the earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. The church is spacious, with a very beautiful spire. Various fragments of sundry lances, &c. are shown as having been ploughed up at Red- more or Bosworth Field. It has a market on Wednesday, and fairs May 8th, and June 10th. It is 13 miles north-east of Leicester, and 106 N.N.W. of London. Long. 1° 18' W., lat. 52' 40° N. BOTAGIUM, in middle age writers, a fee paid for wine sold in butts. BOTALE F oramen, in anatomy, an aperture in the heart of a foetus, whereby the blood cir¬ culates, without going into the lungs, or the left ventricle of the heart. BOTALLUS (Leonard), physician to the duke of Alen^on, and to Henry III. was born at Asti in Piedmont. He introduced at Paris the prac¬ tice of blood-letting, which was condemned by the faculty; though soon after his death it came into rather too general practice. He wrote, 1. De Curandis Vulneribus Sclopetorum, 1560, 8vo. 2. Commentarioli duo, alter de Medici, alter de fEgroti, Munere, 8vo. 3. De Curatione per Sanguinis Missione, 1583, 8vo. His works were collected and published at Leyden in the year 1660.