In  the  United  States  it  usually  means  money  extorted  from  a  person
by  threatening  to  accuse  him  of  a  crime  or  to  oppose  him  in  the  public
prints.     This  is  called  "  levying  black  mail."

Blackstrap.  Gin  and  molasses.  The  English  sailors  call  the  common
wines  of  the  Mediterranean,  blackstrap.  —  falconers  Marine  Dictionary.
Come,  MoUj,  dear,  no  blackstrap  to-night,  switchel,  or  ginger  pop.  —  Margaret,
p.  300.
Mister,  I  guess  you  never  drink'd  no  blackstrap,  did  you  ?  Why,  bless  you,  it 's
the  sweetest  drink  that  ever  streaked  down  a  gullet.  —  Hill's  Yankee  Stories.
Blackstrap  in  old  times  was  the  common  beverage  of  engine  companies
at  fires  in  Boston,  and  is  thus  poetically  alluded  to  by  one  of  her  writers  :

But  oh !  let  blackstrap's  sable  god  deplore
Those  engine-heroes  so  renowned  of  yore  !

Harvard  Register,  q.  235.
Blackwood.     Hemlock,  pine,  spruce,  and  fir.    Maine.
Bladder-tree.  {Siraphylea.)  A  handsome  shrub,  from  six  to  ten  feet
high,  remarkable  for  its  large  inflated  capsules.  —  Bigelovi's  Flora  Bos-
toniensis.
Bladder- WORT.  (Utricularia  vulgaris.)  The  popular  name  of  an
aquatic  plant,  appearing  above  water  only  with  its  stalk  and  flowers.  —
Ibid.
Blanket.  A  term  used  distinctively  for  the  clothing  of  an  Indian.  To
say  of  one's  father  or  mother  that  they  "  wore  the  blanket,"  implies  that
they  were  but  half  civilized  Indians.     Western.
Blanket  Coat.  A  coat  made  from  a  blanket,  common  in  the  "West,  and
often  seen  with  the  black  stripe  of  the  border  of  the  original  blanket


BLA  — BLA  35

crossing  various  parts  of  the  garment.  Such  a  coat,  of  a  bright  blue,
would  be  deemed  a  great  oddity  in  the  Atlantic  States ;  in  the  West,  a
green  one  would  be  considered  equally  ridiculous.  See  3fackinaw
Blanket.
