BOECE, or, more properly, BOYCE, IIEOTOR. a distinguished Scottish historian, was b. of an old family, about 1405, at Dundee. He completed his education at Montague college, in the university of Paris, and in 1497, was appointed a professor of philosophy. Among other learned men whose friendship he here acquired was Erasmus. About the beginning of the 16th c., he was invited by bishop Elphinstone to preside over the uni versity newly founded by him at Aberdeen. B. accepted the office after some natural hesitation, the yearly salary being 40 merles, or about £2 4s. W. sterling. The value of money, however, it has to be remembered, was immensely greater then than now, and the learned principal was at the same time made a canon of the cathedral, and chaplain of St. Ninian. There is every reason to suppose that he discharged his duties with high success. In 1529, he published his lives, in Latin, of the bishops of Morthich and Aberdeen. This work, a great part of which is occupied with the life of his excel lent patron, bishop Elphinstone, was reprinted by the Bannatyne club in 1825. Five years later, B. published the Ilistorg of Scotland, on which his fame chiefly rests, a work which, though proved to contain a large amount of fiction, is worthy of ate commenda tion it has received even on the score of style. The author was rewarded by the king with a pension of £50 Scots, until he should be promoted to a benefice of 100 merles, which appears to have occurred in 1534. B. died two years later.
n genus of plants of the natural order vrtkea', included. until recently. in the genus urtica. or nettle (q.v.). 'The fibers of a number of species are used for ropes, twine, nets, sewing-thread. and cloth, and some of them appear likely to acquire much economical and commercial importance. B. niees (formerly urtica :urea) has been recently ascertained to yield great part of the fiber employed in China in the manufacture of the beautiful fabric known.as China-graRs cloth. It is n perennial herbaceous plant, with broad ovate leaves, which are white and downy beneath, and is destitute of the stinging powers of the nettles. It is carefully cultivated by the Chinese, by whom it is called tchna spa. his propagated either by seeds or by parting the roots. It loves shade and moisture. Three crops are obtained in the season, new shoots spring ing up after it has been cut. Great attention is bestowed upon the preparation of the fiber; the stems are sometimes tied in little 'sheaves, and instead of being steeped aro placed on the roof of a house, to be moistened by the dew, and dried by the sun, hut are carefully preserved from rain, which would blacken them; and in rainy weather they are placed under cover in a current of air. Another plan is to steep the sepa
rated fibers for a night in a pan of water, and sometimes they are steeped in water con taining the ashes of mulberry-wood. A patent was obtained in Britain, in 1849, for the preparation of this fiber, by boiling the stems in an alkaline solution. after previously steeping them for 24 hours in water of the temperature of gO" F., then thoroughly wash• with pure water, and drying in a current of high pressure steam.—It seems now to be ascertained that this.is the same plant which Dr. Roxburgh strongly recommended to attention about the bee-inning of the 19th c. tinder the name of vrtica tenacr:ssima. and of which the court of directors of the East India company, in 1816, declared the fiber to lie " stronger than Russian hemp of the best description," and•to have been •' brought to a thread, preferable to the best material in Europe for Brussels lace." It may well be as curious that, after this, it was lost sight of for aeons:der:dile time, althong.h the commendation bestowed upon it is found not to have been exaggerated. The plant nnInraliv. and is enhivat«1 not only in China but in Sumatra. Siam. Burmah.
Assam, aod other parts of the east. The fiber is called taloa in Sumatra, rameu by the . . . _ .
Malays, and rheea in Assam.—B. candicans and B. utilis, from which a fine silky fiber is obtained in Java, are either varieties of this or nearly allied species.—B. fentescens is another important species, common in .Nepaul, Sikkim, and other parts of the Himalaya, to an elevation of 3000 ft. above the sea. It is not cultivated, but often overruns aban dolled fields. It grows to a height of 6 or 8 ft., and varies from the thickness of a quill to that of the thumb. The leaves are serrated, dark•green above, silvery-white below, not stinging-. The plant is cut. down for use when the seed is formed, the bark is then peeled off, dried iu the sun for a few days, boiled with wood ashes for four or five hours, and beaten with a mallet to separate the fibers, which are called pooch or poec, and also kien•i or yenki. When properly prepared, the fiber is quite equal to the best European flax.—The fibers of a number of coarser species are employed in different parts of the East Indies for making ropes. See Royle's Fibroas Plants of India.
BCEHME'llIA. The China grass-plant, B. nivea. has been recently introduced into culti vation in some of the southern parts of the United States, under its Malay name of Nonce. It succeeds well, and the results as to produce of fiber have proved very encouraging.