Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BA-RIL'LA, n. [Sp.]

1. A plant cultivated in Spain for its ashes, from which the purest kind of mineral alkali is obtained; used in making glass and soap, and in bleaching linen. The plant is cut and bud in heaps, and burnt, the salts running into a hole in the ground, where they form a vitrified lump. – Encyc.
2. The alkali procured from this plant.