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 spotted-bellied 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. 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 Personata. Pediculares, Juss. Essential character: calyx obscurely, fivetoothed; 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. BUCEROS, the hornbill, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Picæ. 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 Abyssinian 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 nu- " See CERVUS. merous, 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 Holoracæ. Elæagni, Jussieu. Essential character; calyx five-toothed, superior; corolla none; berry one-seeded. There is but one species; viz. B. buceras, olive bark tree, is a tree growing from BUCK, in natural history, a male horned beast, whose female is denominated a doe. 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 BLEACHING. 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 al sorts of figures of birds and beasts, as arbs, lions; nor of these only, but of the gols, of the celestial bodies, and all the Works of nature; which custom was dered from the heroic times, and from them communicated to the Grecians, Romans, and Barbarians. BUCKLERS, votive. Those consecrated to the gods, and hang up in their temples, fiter in commemoration of some hero, or as a thanksgiving for a victory obtained ever an enemy; whose bucklers, taken in sar, were offered as a trophy. BUCKRAM, in commerce, a sort of enarse cloth made of hemp, gummed, cakadered, and dyed several colours. It is pet 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 dast, 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 Siely. 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 monologne, 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 bonour 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, twocelled, many-seeded. There are eight speees, of which B. americana, long spiked baldlea, 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. nect dentalis; spear-leaved buddlea; this plant is much taller than the first, and divides into a greater number of siender 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 whor's 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 fificen or eigh teen inches distart 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 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 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 performing 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 made across the rind, and from the middle of that cut a slit downwards about two inches in length, in the form of the letter T, being careful lest the stock be wounded. Then having cut off the leaf from the bud, leaving the footstalk remaining, make a cross cut about half an inch below the eye, and with the knife slit off the bud with part of the wood to it, somewhat in the form of an escut cheon, pulling 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 bad, which may be too long for the slit; and after having exactly fitted the bud to the stock, tie them closely round with bass string, 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 in serted 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, eut off the stock abont three inches above the bud, sloping it that the 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 danger 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. BUFFONIA, in botany, so named in honour of the Count de Buffon, a genus of the Tetrandria Digynia class and order. Natural order of Caryophyllei. Essential character: calyx four-leaved; corol fourpetalled; capsules one-celled, two-seeded. There is but one species, víz. B. tenuifolia ; small buffonia, or bastard chickweed, has an annual root, the stem half a foot in height, upright, commonly branched at the base; leaves in pairs at each joint, resembling grass leaves, but when the plant is in flower they are dry and shriveiled; stamens two, sometimes four; filaments very slender, shorter than the corolla, fastened to the receptacle; anthers saffron coloured; the capsule splits at top into two hearts; seeds blackish. It is a native of England, France, Italy, and Spain. It flowers in May and June. BUFO, toad. See RANA. The house bug, 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, either for devotion, for magnificence, or for conveniency. BUILDING is also used for the art of constructing and raising an edifice; in which sense it comprehends as well the expenses, as the invention and execution of the design. There are three things chiefly to be considered in the art of building, viz. convenience, firmness, and delight. To accomplish which ends, Sir H. Wotton considers the subject under these two heads, the situation, and the work. As to the situation, either that of the whole is to be considered, or that of its parts. In the first, regard must be bad to the quality, temperature, and salubrity of the air; to the quality of the soil; to the conveniency of water, fuel, carriage, &c. and to the agreeableness of the prospect. As to the situation of the parts, the chief rooms, studies, and libraries, should lie towards the east; those offices which require heat, as kitchens, brew-houses, bake-houses, and distillatories towards the south; those which require a cool fresh air, as cellars, pantries, granaries, to the north; as also galleries for paintings, museums, &c. which require a steady light. The ancient Greeks and Romans generally situated the fronts of their honses towards the south; but the modern Italians vary much from this rule. And indeed, as to this matter, regard must still be had to the country, each being obliged to provide against its own inconvencies. The situation being fixed on, the next thing to be considered is the work itself, under which come first the principal parts, and next, the accessories or ornaments. To the principals belong the materials, and the form or disposition. Modern buildings are, in general, much more commodious and beautiful than those of former times. Compactness and uniformity are now so much attended to, that a house built after the new way, will afford, on the same ground, double the conveniences which could be had in an old one. In this article we shall give an account of the principal parts of a building; begin ning with the foundation. Foundation is the trench or trenches excavated out of the ground in order to rest the edifice firmly on its base. The trenches should be sunk till they come to an uniform firm texture of ground, or to the solid rock; but when there is no prospect of a firm and uniform bed of gravel, clay, or rock, then recourse must be had to an artificial foundation. If the ground is tolerably firm, lay transverse pieces of oak called sleepers, about two feet distant from each other, firmly on the ground; having their upper surface level with the bottom of the trench, and their length equal to its breadth, or about two feet longer than the width of the intended masonry at the bottom of the wall: over these lay planks in the length of the foundation to the breadth of the masonry, where it is to be in contact with the ground, and pin or spike them down. But if the ground be very bad, provide piles of wood of such length that they may be able to reach the sound ground, and of such thickness as to be about a twelfth part of their length, and drive these either close to each other, or with interstices such as the soil may require, and fix planks to their heads or upper ends. If the ground be generally sound, turn archies over the loose places. When narrow piers are to stand upon the foundation, inverted arches might be turned below the face of resistance to the ground. apertures, in order to present a greater surouter walls of a building are piled, the inner When the ones must be so likewise, that the whole may stand uniformly firm, without possibility of one wall sinking from another. If narrow piers are to support a great structure, planks should be placed below, in order to prevent the piers from penetrating the ground. If a building is founded upon an inclined plane, the trenches should be made like steps, having their upper surfaces level, and the risings perpen dicular. Forced earth is unfit for a foundation for a considerable time. Foundation is also the substructure, or bottom of a wall, consisting of one or more regular steps on each side of the wall below the level of the underside of the floor of the lowest story of a house, in order to prevent it from sinking into the ground, by opposing a greater surface of resistance to it, and for preventing the wall from being overturned by a tempest or storm: each course of steps is called a footing. The breadth of the substructure should be proportioned to the weight of the superstructure, and to the softness of the ground on which it rests; if the texture of the ground is supposed to be constant, and thre materials of the same specific gravity, the breadth of the foundation will be as the area of the vertical section passing through the line on which the breadth is measured : thus for example, suppose a wall 40 feet high, 2 feet thick, to have a sufficient foundation at 3 feet in breadth, what should be the breadth of a foundation of a wall 60 feet high, 24 feet thick: by proportion it will be 40 × 2:3 :: 60 × 2: the ans.5 feet. This calculation will give the breadth of the foundation of the required wall, equal to the breadth of the insisting wall itself; when the height of the required wall is equal to the ratio, which is the first term 40 × 2 = 80, 'divided by the second term 3, that is 80 263. Thus a wall of 263 feet, would have the breadth of its foundation, equal to its thickness above the foundation, and less than 263 feet, would have a thinner foundation, than even the superstructure. But though the calculation in this case gives the foundation less breadth than the thickness of its superstructure, it must be considered that it only calculates the true breadth of surface that should be opposed to the ground, in order to prevent the wall from penetration by its weight: though the rule gives all the breadth that is necessary, on account of the weight of the insisting wall, yet the breadth of the substructure should always be greater than that of the superstructure; as it will stand more firmly on its base when affected by lateral pressure, and be less liable to rock by the blowing of heavy winds. The least breadth that is commonly given to the substructure of stone walls is one foot thicker than the su perstructure. In damp foundations the superstructure should always be separated from the substructure by lead, tarred paper, or other means, Stone Arch. Stone arch is a number of stones so arranged that, in consequence of their pressure upon one another and upon their supports, they may be suspended over a hollow space; every interior stone being such that if a plummet be depended by a line from any point in that stone, the line will fall within the hollow space. Stone arches are generally hollow below, and concave towards that hollow. The interior stones ought to be truncated wedges, and their faces, which form the intrados, of less dimensions than the upper opposite surfaces which form the extrados; so that when any stone endeavours to descend through the aperture which surrounds it, it will be prevented by the dimensions of the lower part of the aperture being less than those of the top of the stone which has to fall through it. Wedge-like stones forming an arch are arch stones. The joints between the arch stones are called sommerings. The support or supports of an arch are called the reins of that arch. When the support or supports of an arch are stone walls, the upper course or courses on which the beds of the extreme arch stones rest, are called the imposts. Spring course or chaptrels of the arch, and beds themselves, are called the butments or abutments, or spring beds, or skew backs of the arch. When an arch is either recessed in any piece of masonry, or forms the head of an aperture through that piece of masonry, the arch stones which are common to the intrados and to the face of the masonry; are called voussoirs, and the middle voussoir is called the key stone. Stone arches are used for a variety of purposes, in supporting different parts of a building, over apertures when the apertures are too wide for lintelling, and over a wooden or stone lintels, to assist in supporting the superincumbent building. Arches are also used to prop the sides of a building, and in soft foundations inverted arches are used, between narrow piers, to prevent the pier from penetrating, by opposing a greater surface of resistance to the ground. Floors and roofs are frequently supported with arches, in order to render the building more secure from fire. Arches employed for several of these pur, poses have been denominated as follows: those over wooden lintels have been called occult discharging arches, or arches of discharge; those used to prop the sides of a building are called arch boutants, or flying buttresses; and those over apertures, the intrados of which are horizontal planes, have been absurdly called straight arches; it is only for the property of its radiating joints this last is called an arch. Because the courses in every kind of masonry ought to be horizontal, or the nearest position to it that the nature of the arch will admit of; in stone arching, it follows that when the intrados is a rotative figure with a vertical axis, the coursing joints will be copic surfaces, and their intersections upon the intrados horizontal circles, and the transverse joints will be planes sending to the axis: when the axis is horizon |