BAUHINIA, in botany, so called in ho nour of the two famous botanists, John and Caspar Baultin, a genus of the De candria Monogynia class and order. Na tural order of Lomentacew ; Legumino sx, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx five cleft, deciduous ; petals expanding, oblong, with claws, the upper one more distant, all inserted into the calyx, le gume. There are 13 species, of which B. aculeata is an erect shrub, the height of a man ; the trunk and branches are very prickly ; leaves roundish ; the two lobes also are roundish and blunt ; the flowers are large, white, and have a scent which is somewhat unpleasant; sometimes the fold of the calyx is entire, not cloven. Mr. Miller says that it rises to the height of sixteen or eighteen feet in Jamaica, where it grows plentifully, and the other sugar islands in America ; that the stalks are terminated by several long spikes of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by bordered pods about three inches long, containing two or three swelling seeds ; that these pods are glutinous, and have a strong balsamic scent, as have al so the leaves when bruised ; and that P, is called in America the Indian savin tree, from its strong odour, somewhat resem bling the common savin.
BAWDY-house, a house of ill fame, to which lewd persons of both sexes resort, and there have criminal conversation.
The keeping a bawdy-house is a com mon nuisance, not only on account that it endangers the public peace by drawing together debauched and idle persons,and promoting quarrels, but likewise for its tendency to corrupt the manners of the people. And, therefore, persons convict. ed of keeping bawdy-houses are punish able by fine and imprisonment ; and to such other punishment as the court, at their discretion, shall inflict.