Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/664

BASSET TABLE. BAS'SET TA-BLE, The (Fr. basseite. It. Ijassetto. a game of cards resembling faro, and invented in ^'enice). The title of a comedy by Susannah Centlivre (170G). As indicated by the name, the plot is built about the gaming-table.

BASS'FORD, William Kipp (1839—). An American musician and composer, born in New York. He studied music there under Samuel Jackson, an organist, and after extensive tours throughout the United States as a concert pian- ist, became a teacher of pianoforte-playing, and organist of the Madison Square (Xew York) Presbyterian Church, and subsequently of Cal- varj' Church, East Orange, X. J. His works in- clude an opera, Cassilda, a Mass in E-flat, and much vocal and instrumental music.

BAS'SIA. See Butter-Tkee.

BASSIM. See Bassein.

BASSO, bas'so. See Bass.

BASSOMPLERRE, ba-sox'pyar', Francois DE (1.579-1040). A marshal of France. He was born at Harouel, in Lorraine, and at an early age gained the favor of Henry IV., whom he resembled greatly in character. He fought in Savoy (1602), in Hungarv (1603), at La Ro- chelle (1628), at the Pass' of Susa (1629), and in Languedoe (1631). He was also sent on dip- lomatic missions to Spain, to England, and to Switzerland. Made marshal in 1622, he awak- ened the suspicion and resentment of Richelieu, who, in 1031, caused him to be cast into the Bas- tille, from which he was not liberated until the tleath of Eielielieu, in 1643. Bassorapierre was a type of the silken swordsman of the courts of Henry IV. and Louis XIII., pictured so excel- lently by Dumas, and constantly engaged in fight- ing, plotting, and making love. At the time of his arrest he is said to have burned 6000 love- letters. His Memoires (Cologne, 1665; Amster- dam, 1723), written in the Bastille, are ex- tremely interesting.

BASSOON' (Fr. basson, It. bnssone, from hasso, low, called in Italian fagotto, bundle). A musical instrument of the double-reed variety, the bass of the wood-wind family of instruments. In 1539 Afranio, a canon of Ferrara, conceived the idea of bending double the long bombardo then in use, so as to make it easier for handling, hence the Italian name. It is made of maple- woo.d or plane-tree, with a long S-shaped metal mouthpiece, and is provided generally with S holes and 10 keys. Its enormous compass of 3 octaves, B,b "to C, contains 3 registers: The lower — powerful, solemn, and majestic ; the middle — sweetly expressive, but weak ; and the upper register — sorrowful. In addition, it possesses certain tones that are comic to gro- tfesqueness, as in the famous 'honor' monologue in Verdi's Falstaff. These combined qualities make the bassoon the most serviceable and fre- quently employed of the wind instruments (q.v.) in an orchestra. The notes for the bassoon are written on the bass-clef for the lower register, and on the tenor-clef for the higher. There are several sizes of bassoons, the most important among them the tenor bassoon, a fifth higher, and the double bassoon, an octave lower, than the ordinarv bassoon. Bassoon is also the name of an organ" stop, the pipes of which arc made to imitate the tones of the instrument.

'''BASSO - BILIEVO, bas'sd re-lya'vo. See Alto-Hii.ievo.

BASSORA, biis'sA-ra. See Basra.

BASSOBA GUM (from the city Bassora). A yellowish-opaque substance of vegetable origin, resembling gum arable, but differing from it by being mostly insoluble in water.

BASS ROCK. A rocky islet in the Firth of Forth, l^o miles off the coast of Haddington- shire, Scotland (Map: Scotland, F 3). It rises precipitously 320 feet above the sea, and is about 1 mile in circumference. The only landing is found on the southwest side, and this is inacces- sibly in rough weather. The rock from west to east is tunneled by a cave accessible at low tide. Of volcanic origin, and geologically interesting, its chief importance arises from its historical as- sociations. As a fortress and State prison, the principal event in its history was the siege sus- tained by 24 cf James II. 's supporters against the forces of William 111. during 1691-94, which ended in an honorable capitulation. This last Jacobean stronghold was dismantled, and the rock became private property. It is now tenanted by a keeper. It is the resort of innumerable flocks of sea-fowl, especially solan geese, which form a profitable source of revenue.

BASS STRAIT. The channel separating Tas- mania from Australia (Jlap: Australia, G 6). It is about 185 miles long and from 80 to 150 miles broad, and contains many small islands. The name of the strait is derived from that of Dr. George Bass, Aho first proved that Tas- mania was an island by circumnavigating it in 1798.

BASS il.ns) TTJ'BA. See Tuba.

BASS'WOOD. See Lime-Tree.

BAST (origin obscure). A term originally applied only to the fibrous tissue occurring as the innermost layer of bark. These fibres are longer and more elastic than wood fibres, and often have considerable economic importance. The term has. however, come to hae a more extended technical application. In the structure of the higher plants (ferns and flowering plants) a system of conducting vessels occurs ("vascular system'). These vessels are organized into strands called 'bundles,' each bundle consisting of two kinds of tissue, 'bast' and 'wood.' In this way, each bundle is double, one part consisting of bast elements ('phloem'), the other of wood elements ('xylem'). The vessels which enter into the structure of the bast (phloem) region are called 'sieve vessels' or 'sieve tubes,' being elongated cells in whose walls there are perforated pbtes. In ordinary shrubs and trees there is a zone of actively dividing cells between the bast and the wood called the cambium. This forms new bast on the outside and new w-ood on the inside, resulting in an aimual increase in the diameter of the stem. In consequence of this, the bast or inner bark of the ordinary tree occurs in concentric zones. The bast varies accordingly in thickness, in fleshy roots and tubers representing most of the diameter. In trees in which the bark is not thrown off, the hast is very scanty, as in the beech, in which the entire bast zone in a tree 100 years old is only about 0.04 inch in thickness, "it the bark is thrown oflT, the bast is more abundant, the concentric zones often being conspicuous, but not indicating the age of the tissue. It is known, for example, that in willows with a smooth bark a tree which is a dozen years old may not show