1 THE BRITISH ENCYCLOPEDIA. BUC UBROMA, in botany, a genus of the order. Nat. order Columniferæ. Malvacex, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx three-leaved; petals five, arched, semibifid; anthers on each filament three; stigma simple; capsule muricate, ending in a five-rayed star punched with holes, five-celled, valveless, not opening. There is but one species, viz. B. guazuma, elmleaved bubroma or theobroma, or bastard cedar. This tree rises to the height of forty or fifty feet in the West Indies, having a trunk as large as the size of a man's body, covered with a dark brown bark, sending out many branches towards the top, which extend wide every way; leaves oblong, heart-shaped, alternate, nearly four inches long, and two broad near the base, ending in acute points; the branches have a nap scattered over them; they have no buds; the flowers are in corymbs. In Jamaica it is known by the name of bastard cedar, and is peculiar to the low lands there, forming an agreeable shade for the cattle, and supplying them with food in dry weather, when all the herbage is burned up or exhausted. The wood is light and so easily wrought, that it is generally used by coachmakers in all the side pieces; it is also cut into staves for casks. BUCCANEERS, those who dry and smoke flesh or fish after the manner of the Americans. This name is particularly given to the French inhabitants of the island of St. Domingo, whose whole employment is to hunt bulls or wild boars, in order to sell the hides of the former and the flesh of the latter. BUC The buccaneers are of two sorts; the buccaneers ox-hunters, or rather hunters of bulls and cows; and the buccaneers boar hunters, who are simply called hunters: though it seems that such a name be less proper to them than to the former; since the latter smoke and dry the flesh of wild boars, which is properly called buccaneering, whereas the former prepare only the hides, which is done without buccaneering. Buccaneering is a term taken from Buccan, the place where they smoke their flesh or fish, after the manner of the sa vages, on a grate or hurdle made of Brasil wood, placed in the smoke a considerable distance from the fire; this place is a hut of about twenty-five or thirty feet in circumference, all surrounded and covered with palmetto leaves. BUCCINATOR, in anatomy; a muscle on each side of the face, common to the lips and cheeks. See ANATOMY. BUCCINUM, in natural history, a genus of the Vermes Testacea. Animal a limax; shell univalve, spiral, gibbous; aperture ovate, terminating in a short canal leaning to the right, with a retuse beak or projection; pillar-lip, expanded. There are between two and three hundred species, separated into eight divisions; viz. A. inflated, rounded, thin, subdiaphonous, and brittle. B. with a short exserted beak; lip unarmed outwardly. C. lip prickly outwardly on the bind part; in other respects resembling division B. D. pillar-lip, dilated and thickened. E. pillar-lip appearing as if worn flat. F. smooth, and not among the former divisions. G. angular, and not included among the former divisions. H. tapering, subu late, smooth. BUCCO, the barbet, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Picæ. Generic character; bill sharp-edged, compressed on the sides, notched on each side near the apex, bent inwards, with a long slit beneath the eyes; nostrils covered with incumbent feathers; feet formed for climbing. These birds live chiefly in warm climates, and are very stupid; bill strong, straightish, almost covered with bristles; tail feathers usually ten, weak. There are nineteen species, of which we shall notice only B. jamatia, or spottedbellied barbet. This bird is found in Brazil and Cayenne, is clumsy in its shape, and pensive and solitary in its manners. It is so lethargic in its disposition, that it will suffer itself to be shot at several times before it attempts to escape. Its food consists of insects, and particularly large beetles, and the feathers of its tail are much worn by friction, so as to indicate the probability of the tail being employed, agreeably to the known habit of woodpeckers, in propping or supporting the body. BUCEROS, the hornbill, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Pica. Generic character; their bill is convex, curved, sharp-edged, large, outwardly serrate, with a horny protuberance near the base of the upper mandible; the nostrils are behind the base of the bill; the tongue is sharp-pointed, and short; the feet gressorial. There are sixteen species enumerated by Gmelin, though Latham reckons only four; of these the most curious is the B. abyssinicus, or Abyssi. nian hornbill. This is found in the country from which it takes its name, principally among fields of jaff, and nourishes itself by the green beetles which abound in them. Its young are numerous, sometimes amounting even to eighteen. Though capable of flying far, it chiefly runs. It builds its nest in large thick trees, near churches or other elevated buildings: this nest resembles a magpie's in being covered, but is several times larger than an eagle's; it is seldom much elevated above the ground, but almost always firm on the trunk, and the entrance to it is always from the east. This bird is, in some places, called the bird of destiny. BUCIDA, in botany, a genus of the Dodecandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Holoracea. Elæagni, Jussieu. Essential character; calyx fivetoothed, superior; corolla none; berry one-seeded. There is but one species; viz. B. buceras, olive bark tree, is a tree growing from twenty to thirty feet in height; the branches and twigs are divaricate or flexuose, roundish, smooth, and even flowers, in racemes from the crowded leaves, simple, spreading, many-flowered; calyx hoary without, tomentose within; filaments twice as long as the calyx; anthers roundish, yellow; germ flatted, with ten streaks at the base. It is a native of the West Indies, flowering in spring. BUCHNERA, in botany, so named in honour of A. C. Buchner, a genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia class and order. Natural order of Personatæ. Pediculares, Juss. Essential character: calyx, obscurely five-toothed; corolla border five-cleft, equal; lobes cordate, capsule two-celled. There are eleven species, of which B. Americana, North American buchnera, has the stem scarcely branching; flowers in a spike remote from each other; two of the stamens in the jaws of the corolla, and two in the middle of the tube. The herb grows black in drying. It is a native of Virginia and Canada. B. cernua, drooping buchnera, is a shrub half a foot in height, branching regularly; a little jointed from the scars left by the leaves; purplish; flowers sessile, erect, with a linear, sharp bracte, shorter than the calyx, and two shorter lateral bristles; calyx tubular, oblong semiquinquefid, equal; corolla white, with a filiform tube, twice as long as the calyx, and bent back; border flat, five-parted; segments subovate; anthers within the jaws, two lower than the other two; stigma inclosed, reflex, thickish. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. BUCK, in natural history, a male horned beast, whose female is denominated a doe. See CERVUS. BUCKET, a small portable vessel to hold water, often made of leather, for its lightness and easy use in cases of fire. It is also the vessel let down into a well, or the sides of ships, to fetch up water. BUCKING, the first operation in the whitening of linen-yarn or cloth: it consists in pouring hot water upon a tubful of yarn, intermingled with several strata of fine ashes of the ash tree. See BLEACH ING. BUCKLER, a piece of defensive armour used by the ancients. It was worn on the left arm, and composed of wickers woven together, or wood of the lightest sort, but most commonly of hides, fortified with plates of brass or other metal. The figure was sometimes round, sometimes oval, and sometimes almost square. Most of the bucklers were curiously adorned with all sorts of figures of birds and beasts, as eagles, lions: nor of these only, but of the gods, of the celestial bodies, and all the works of nature; which custom was derived from the heroic times, and from them communicated to the Grecians, Romans, and Barbarians. BUCKLERS, votive. Those consecrated to the gods, and hung up in their temples, either in commemoration of some hero, or as a thanksgiving for a victory obtained over an enemy; whose bucklers, taken in war, were offered as a trophy. It BUCKRAM, in commerce, a sort of coarse cloth, made of hemp, gummed, calendered, and dyed several colours. is put into those places of the lining of a garment, which one would have stiff and to keep their forms. It is also used in the bodies of women's gowns; and it often serves to make wrappers to cover cloths, serges, and such other merchandises, in order to preserve them and keep them from the dust, and their colours from fading. BUCOLIC, in ancient poetry, a kind of poem relating to shepherds and country affairs, which, according to the most generally received opinion, took its rise in Sicily. Bucolics, says Vossius, have some conformity with comedy. Like it, they are pictures and imitations of ordinary life; with this difference, however, that comedy represents the manners of the inhabitants of cities; and bucolics, the occupations of country people. Sometimes, continues he, this last poem is in form of a monologue, and sometimes of a dialogue. Sometimes there is action in it, and sometimes only narration; and sometimes it is composed both of action and narration. The hexameter verse is the most proper for bucolics in the Greek and Latin tongues. Moschus, Bion, Theocritus, and Virgil, are the most renowned of the ancient bucolic poets. BUDDLEA, in botany, so named in honour of Adam Buddle, a genus of the Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Personatæ. Scrophulariæ, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx four cleft; corol four cleft; stamens from the divisions; capsules two furrowed, two-celled, many-seeded. There are eight species, of which B. americana, long spiked buddlea, is a shrub the height of a man; leaves ovate-lanceolate; flowers in long slender spikes, axillary, and terminating; composed of little, opposite, many-flowered, crowded racemes; corolla coriaceous, scarcely longer than the calyx. B. occidentalis; spear-leaved buddlea; this plant is much taller than the first, and divides into a greater number of slender branches, which are covered with a russet hairy bark, with long spear-shaped leaves, ending in sharp points; these grow opposite at every joint; at the end of the branches are produced spikes of white flowers, growing in whorls round the stalks. It grows in sheltered places in the West Indies, being too tender to resist the force of strong winds. BUDDING, in gardening, is a method of propagation, practised for various sorts of trees, but particularly those of the fruit kinds. It is the only method which can be had recourse to,with certainty, for continuing and multiplying the approved varieties of many sorts of fruit and other trees; as, although their seeds readily grow, and become trees, not one out of a hundred, so raised, produces any thing like the original; and but very few that are good. But trees or stocks raised in this manner, or being budded with the proper sorts, the buds produce invariably the same kind of tree, fruit, flower, &c. continuing unalterably the same afterwards. The stocks for this use are commonly raised from seed, as the kernels or stones of these different sorts of fruit, &c. sown in autumn or spring in beds, in the nursery, an inch or two deep, which, when a year or two old, should be transplanted into nursery rows, two feet asunder, and fifteen or eighteen inches distant in the rows, to stand for budding upon, keeping them to one stem, and suffering their tops to run up entire; when of two or three years growth, or about the size of the little finger at bottom, or a little more, they are of a due size for budding upon. Stocks raised from suckers arising from the roots of the trees of these different sorts, layers, and cuttings of them, are also made use of, but they are not so good for the purpose. Budding may likewise be performed occasionally upon trees that already bear fruit, when intended to change the sorts, or have different sorts on the same tree, or to renew any particular branch of a tree; the operation being performed on the young shoots of the year, or of one or two year's growth only. The most proper height to bud stocks varies according to the intention, but from about three or four inches to six feet or more from the ground is practised. To have dwarf trees for walls, and espaliers, &c. they must be budded from 1 wet may pass off, and not enter into the stock. To the part of the stock which is left, some fasten the shoot which proceeds from the bud, to prevent the dan ger of its being blown out, but this must continue no longer than one year; after which it must be cut off close above the bud, that the stock may be covered by it. BUFF, in commerce, a sort of leather prepared from the skin of the buffalo, which, dressed with oil, after the manner of shammy, makes what we call buff-skin. This makes a very considerable article in the French, English, and Dutch commerce at Constantinople, Smyrna, and all along the coast of Africa. The skins of elks, oxen, and other like animals, when prepared after the same manner as that of the buffalo, are likewise called buffs. BUFFALO, in zoology, an animal of the ox kind, with very large, crooked, and resupinated horns. See Bos. within, about three to six inches from the bottom, that they may first furnish branches near the ground: for half standards, at the height of three or four feet; and for full standards, at from about five to six or seven feet high; the stocks being trained accordingly. The necessary implements and materials for this purpose are, a small budding knife for preparing the stocks and buds for insertion, having a flat thin haft to open the bark of the stocks in order to admit the buds; and a quantity of new bass strings well moistened, to tie them with. In perform ing the operation of budding, the head of the stock is not to be cut off, as in grafting, but the bud inserted into the side, the head remaining entire till the spring afterwards, and then cut off A smooth part on the side of the stocks at the proper height, rather on the north side away from the sun, should be chosen; and then with the knife an horizontal cut BUFFONIA, in botany, so named in made across the rind, and from the mid- honour of the Count de Buffon, a genus dle of that cut a slit downwards about two of the Tetrandria Dygynia class and order. inches in length, in the form of the letter Natural order of Caryophillei. Essential T, being careful lest the stalk be wound- character: calyx four-leaved; corol four ed. Then, having cut off the leaf from petalled; capsules one-celled, two-seedthe bud, leaving the foot-stalk remaining, ed. There is but one species, viz. B. temake a cross-cut about half an inch be- nuifolia ; small buffonia, or bastard chicklow the eye, and with the knife slit off the weed, has an annual root, the stem half a bud with part of the wood to it, some- foot in height, upright,commonly branchwhat in the form of an escutcheon, pulled at the base; leaves in pairs at each ing off that part of the wood which was taken with the bud, being careful that the eye of the bud be left with it, as all those buds which lose their eyes in stripping should be thrown away as good for nothing: then having gently raised the bark of the stock, where the cross incision was made with the flat haft of the knife clear to the wood, thrust the bud in, placing it smoothly between the rind and the wood of the stock, cutting off any part of the rind, belonging to the. bud, which may be too long for the slit; and after having exactly fitted the bud to the stock, tie them closely round with bass strings, beginning at the under part of the slit and proceed to the top, taking care not to bind round the eye of the bud, which should be left open and at liberty. When the buds have been inserted about three weeks or a month, examine which of them have taken; those which appear shrivelled and black being dead, but such as remain fresh and plump are joined; and at this time loosen the bandage, which, if not done in time, is apt to pinch the stock, and greatly injure, if not destroy, the bud. The March following, cut off the stock about three inches above the bud, sloping it, that the joint, resembling grass leaves, but when The housebug, or cimex lectuarius, so extremely troublesome about beds, is of a roundish figure, and of a dark cinnamon colour. One of the best methods for extirpating these insects from bedsteads is, by thoroughly washing all the parts where they are likely to lodge with a solution of muriated mercury, or, as it is called in the shops, corrosive sublimate. Great caution should be had in the use of this mixture, as it is one of the most deadly poisons known. BUGINVILLEA, in botany, a genus of the Octandria Monogynia class and order. Corolla inferior, tubular, four toothed; stamina inserted on the receptacle ; fruit one-seeded. One species, B. spectabilis, found at the Brazils. BUILDING, a fabric erected by art, |