Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE

BRITISH ENCYCLOPEDIA,

OR

DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

COMPRISING

AN ACCURATE AND POPULAR VIEW

OF THE PRESENT

IMPROVED STATE OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON,

Author and Proprietor of the Philosophical Journal, and various other Chemical, Philosophical, and
Mathematical Works.

ILLUSTRATED WITH

UPWARDS OF 150 ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS,

BY

MESSRS. LOWRY AND SCOTT.

VOL. II. B....E.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM,

Goswell Street;

FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW;

J. JOHNSON; R. BALDWIN; F. AND C. RIVINGTON; A. STRAHAN; T. PAYNE; J. STOCKDALE;

SCATCHERD

AND LETTERMAN; CUTHELL AND MARTIN; R. LEA; LACKINGTON AND CO.; VERNOR, HOOD, AND
SHARPE; J. BUTTERWORTH; J. AND A. ARCH; CADELL AND DAVIES; S. BAGSTER; BLACK, PARRY,
AND KINGSBURY; J. HARDING; J. MAWMAN; P. AND W. WYNNE; SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES;
B. C. COLLINS; AND T. WILSON AND SON.

IN

VOL. II.

The Binder is requested to place the Plates in the following order, taking care to make all the Plates face an even Page, unless otherwise directed.

AVES IV. at the end of Sheet R.

V. in the middle of Sheet D d.

CANNON BORING, at the end of the article CANNON.
CIRCULAR INSTRUMENT, opposite the article CIRCLE.
CLOCK WORK, opposite the article CLOCK WORK.
CONIC SECTIONS I. at the end of Sheet Z.

II. III. and IV. middle of Sheet A a.

V. opposite to the article CONJUGATION.

CRANES, middle of Sheet D d.

CRYSTALLOGRAPHY I. and II. end of article CRYSTALLOGRAPHY.

DIALLING, at the end of the article DIAL.

DIVING BELL, middle of Sheet M m.

DRAWING I. II. III. middle of Sheet N n.

DYNAMICS, middle of Sheet Q q

ENTOMOLOGY I. opposite the article CERATONIA.
II. end of Vol. II.

MAMMALIA IV. opposite the article CAMELOPARDALIS.
V. end of the article CANIS.

VI. end of Sheet F.

VII. opposite the article DATISI.
-VIII. opposite the article DEER.

IX. opposite the article DIPUS.

MISCELLANIES II. opposite the article CATEGORY.
III. opposite the article CYCLOID.

IV. at the end of Sheet Rr.

PISCES II. opposite the article CHEVRON.
III. end of Sheet H h.

SERPENTES Opposite the article CROTCHES.

P

THE

BRITISH ENCYCLOPEDIA..

B

BUC

UBROMA, in botany, a genus of the Polyadelphia Dodecandria class and order. Nat. order Columniferæ : Malvacea,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, elm-leaved 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 fsh, 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

buccaneers ox-hunters, or rather hunters of bulls and cows; and the buccaneers boarhunters, 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 savages, 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 eircumference, 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; apperture 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; hip unarmed outwardly. C. lip prickly outwardly on the hind 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

The buccaneers are of two sorts: the late, smooth. VOL. II.

B

« PreviousContinue »